


The Ladybug Line

by aniaw



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Abuse, Child Abuse, F/M, I live to watch my sunshine son suffer, Magic, Witch AU, Witches, actual cat chat noir, sorry - Freeform, witches and black cats
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-04
Updated: 2017-12-10
Packaged: 2018-05-31 04:06:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 36,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6454978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aniaw/pseuds/aniaw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marinette isn't sure how to handle being a new witch. Thank goodness for a certain black cat. Soon she comes into her own, facing the new danger lurking in her city. As the strongest girl in Paris she gains new confidence, but how can her new power stand against the old evil wrapping its way around her dear kitty?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Cat in the Stars

**Author's Note:**

> My first fic! I suppose this is kind of a preface. Comments greatly appreciated :)

Marinette took a deep breath, taking in the midnight still of Paris. Cold iron bit into her back as she admired the unobstructed view of the stars, only afforded by the top of the Eiffel Tower. She needed these moments of solitude. She needed a reprieve from the hectic life that had assaulted her since discovering she was a witch. The quiet night pressed down on her and she wrapped herself in the pitch-black blanket of a starless Parisian skyline. Alone, she thought- until those two pinpricks of green dropped down into her sight. Too big to be stars. Too alive. 

She yelped, flailing about as the righted herself almost a thousand feet above the crowd. Her heart flew up to her throat, pounding.

“WHO ARE YOU!??” She demanded, all of her prior zen lost. She tugged at the corners of her red and black mask, securing it over her eyes. The last thing she needed was for the whole world to find out she could zip up to the top of the Eiffel tower on a broom.

That cat jumped down silently, landing at her feet with questioning eyes. 

She laughed with the awkward nervousness of someone grateful that no one was around to mock her. She was a witch. She was mightier than any simple human. More powerful than the millions who roamed about beneath her.

Here she was, the fearsome witch, terrified by a simple black cat.

“You can call me Chat Noir, little lady”

Her giggles abruptly morphed back into an undignified shriek and she once again attempted to keep her balance along the precipice. 

“You can talk?” She gasped

“Haven’t been a witch for very long, have you?” The pity in his eyes grated at her sense of dignity, but she was certainly in no position to protest.

She sunk to the ground with a dramatic sigh, knees pulled tight against her chest to try and calm her quickened pulse. “Was it that obvious?” She squinted at him. “I supposed no normal cat could make it up here, could they? I’m such a dunce.”

“Now, now dear bug, we all have our mewments. It’s purrfectly normal.” He purred at her. His ungrateful audience just stared.

“What,” he sniffed, offended. “Never heard a funny cat?”

“I’ve never heard a cat at all.” She claimed, her heartbeat slowing to a more reasonable pace.

“You need to get out more, Buginette”

“Why’re you calling me a bug? Getting insulted by a cat is the last thing I need today.”

“hmm…” He cocked his head, his green eyes glowing in the moonlight. “You really are new huh? What happened to your Dame?

“Dame?”

“The witch who chose you.” Seeing no recognition, the Cat deigned to explain. “You were chosen, just like all witches. Just like all us familiars. Magic’s not hereditary, it’s given. A witch must’ve seen potential in you and chosen you to join the long line of ladybug magicians.” 

The look on Marinette’s face must’ve convinced him to continue.

“You’ll specialize in luck magic. No need to worry. I’m sure you’ll pick up fast. Magic really doesn’t change all that much of your day to day life, I paw-romise.” The cat sat to lick a paw, eyeing her carefully. She let his words sink in.

“So being a cat hasn’t change your day to day?”

He turned to the dimming skyline. One by one the lights went out throughout the city, as its inhabitants tucked in for the night. The stars pulled above, glowing brighter as each window was doused below.

“No,” he said simply.

She reached her hand out to pet him, stroking the velvet fur behind his ears.


	2. The Cat in the Fray

Marinette stared intently at the golden hair bobbing animatedly in front of her, desperately trying to quell the desire to reach out that was bubbling up inside her. She spent most of her time in class fighting between this urge and the urge to doodle some new designs and, consequently, was absorbing very little of Mme Bustier’s lecture on King Louis the XIV. Unbidden, new designs flowed out of her. Marinette had quickly found her sketches to be the best way to deal with the accumulating stress. And she certainly had a lot of stress to relieve. She let everything out. Inquisitive green eyes floating above the starry skyline of her city. Air blowing through her hair, whipping out her hair ties, and biting at her exposed skin. The cold tang of the tower's metal pressed against her back. It all flowed out of her and before she knew it, everyone was packing up for lunch and class was over. 

Alya sighed beside her, clearly noticing her notebook. She looked away, embarrassed, only to stare directly into the eyes of her beloved Adrien. He stared intently at her designs.

“Wow! Marinette, these are incredible! Did you just come up with them?” He looked up with genuine eagerness only to see Marinette staring open mouthed at him. Her brain had shut down, but she managed to stutter out some sort of noncommittal (and slightly nonsensical) grunt accompanied by a rather violent jerk of her shoulders. Adrien chuckled and turned back to his bag with another comment reaffirming her talent.

Red signals flared in Marinette’s mind, telling her to ABORT and GET OUT OF THERE. She threw loose papers into her bag, fully intending to flee from the kind words of the boy she low-key worshipped. As she bolted from her seat, she seemed to forget about the step down from her desk.

Time slowed for her as her gravity shifted off-center with a perfect trajectory to throw her down to the front of the classroom. As horror flooded her mind, she felt a now familiar lightness welling up from her feet. Magic. She flipped through the many conversations she had had with Chat Noir in the past weeks, as she felt her magic reach out to the very boy she was attempting to escape from. 

Time resumed its normal slog and she found herself in the arms of a very handsome young model. 

“Well aren’t you lucky,” Adrien said with a chuckle. “That could have been a bad spill.”

“W-what, not. No.” Marinette floundered. “Normal. Normal luck. Very normal.”

The boy was simply too kind, Marinette thought. He didn’t even let a single weird look cross his face. He gave her another warm chuckle and untangled her from his arms, letting her escape with a whispered thanks.

\---------------

 

The fighting started too soon and too slowly for Marinette’s tastes. She couldn’t help but wonder if this was just a manifestation of a wish she had made deep down. Chat Noir had been right- magic really hadn’t changed all that much of her daily life and it had felt almost disappointing. As if she was standing at the edge of a precipice and the magic kept her dangling, waiting for one final shove to thrust her into the adventure that awaited below. 

That push came one night as she sat in her usual spot, petting her kitten as he stretched across her knees. They watched the setting sun stain the clouds red. The screaming began and she felt her breath catch as she waited to be propelled into that anticipated excitement she had hoped her magic would bring to her dull life. Chat Noir stiffened in her lap, and, as the newbie she was, she waited for his pronouncement of what awaited her below.

“Something isn’t right,” she pressed. 

His green eyes roved over the flickering lights of the cityscape. “Well, given the general sights and sounds of chaos that seem to be coming up from below, I would say that is an accurate assessment. It’s magic- I can feel it. You can too, right?”

“Yes.” She was feeling a bit breathless all of the sudden.

Without a word, the two made their way towards her broom. She mounted it, while the cat nimbly leapt up to balance near the bristles with a suspiciously extraordinary steadiness that the young witch had come accept without question.

As she coasted over the city, Marinette scanned the panicked crowds for the source of the violence wrecking her city. She quietly surveyed the collapsed buildings and crying children. Brown dots scuttled across the debris, which she soon determined to be some sort of insect. She called on all of her admittedly limited flying experience to dodge clouds of the bugs whizzing through the air. She felt Chat press his face up against her back, nuzzling her in a feline form of reassurance. Normally, she was painfully aware of his human status and would push aside his improper bids for closeness, but tonight she felt grateful for the warmth that Chat conveyed to her. All to soon she spotted the origin of the chaos and pulled down on to the cobblestones to confront her magical fate. 

Her destiny did not quite take the form she expected, as she found herself staring into the round eyes a young girl. Her blonde pigtails started high on her head and fell limply to her shoulders. She wore the classic gingham dress and closed toed shoes of an elementary student, but sprouted comically grotesque beetle wings and antennae despite her childish image. The girl was screaming with a strange buzzing undercurrent, seemingly on the verge of tears.

“I’M NOT AFRAID OF BUGS! YOU ARE YOU, BIG IDIOTS! HAHAA sob sob HAHA sob HAHAA”

Marinette was not sure if this was the magical destiny she really wanted.

“Watch out!” A black blur of fur collided directly with Marinette’s head. She was knocked to the ground a swarm of beetles pierced the air above her coordinated into a flight pattern that looked suspiciously like an arrow.

“What the heck is going on Chat, is this normal magic stuff or do I need to kick some butt?” Marinette was always ready to kick butt. She had been ready since she first discovered she could kick butt. But now that she was faced with kicking the butt of a child who seemed to be loosely holding on to a debilitating fear of beetles, she was feeling slightly less confident in the moral soundness of kicking butt. 

“Whoa reign in your bloodlust there a bit Bugaboo, she’s just a kid”

Ladybug did not have the decency to look abashed. “She is tearing the city apart, Chat. Do you know how I can stop stop her?”

“I don’t think she has any magic ability of her own,” Chat mused. “I think she is getting her power from a possessed object. If you can find it and break it she should return to normal and you can use your magic to heal the city.”

“Okay, I can do that,” She was trying to reassure herself more than anything. “I can do that. But –uh- any idea what object I have to break?”

“I’ll get back to you on that one purr-incess. Even I don’t have the answers to paw-sitvely everything.”

Marinette barely suppress an eye roll as she dodged another pass of the beetle arrow. It seemed to be picking up speed. She felt the lightness of he magic well up from her feet, as her body seemed to move faster and faster. She ducked and dodged and twisted and with each passing moment her magic lightened her body. The beetles smashed down at her like a hammer and she rolled forward, narrowly avoiding becoming a bug squashed on the pavement. How very lucky for her.

“Got it!” Chat yelled over the ever-heightening buzz of the beetles. He was perched preternaturally on a lamppost surveying the scene. “I see a beetle in her hair. I think the magic is in that.”

Marinette leaped over the giant beetle sword sweeping at her, rolling as she cushioned her landing. She sprinted straight towards the confused, yet decidedly maniacal insect child, preparing to swipe a kick at her feet. The kid looked up at her fearfully and Marinette hesitated for a hot second. The fear in the child’s eyes darkened to something way more sinister than Marinette was comfortable seeing on a kid, and she sensed danger swiftly approaching her from behind. In the span of a half second, she closed her eyes, picturing the point of a beetle dart spinning precisely towards the center of her back. 

The moment passed with a yelp and flash of green light across her closed eyelids. she opened her eyes to herself safe. The beetles fell to the ground around her skittering around with a disgusting yet harmless chittering. The kid was pressed to the ground with an odd figure perched across her thin shoulders. The boy was dressed in all black leather. His soft blonde hair fell in wild locks to frame his face. Soft black cat ears protruded from his head, nestled in tufts of dark fur. A long black tail curled up behind him, visible over his shoulder. Her confusion dissipated quickly as she was drawn to his eyes. Framed in a black leather mask, they were the same bright green eyes that peered out to her from the black fur of her magical friend. 

“Why, Chat Noir, I didn’t know you were a blonde.”

“Ha. Ha. Just don’t go making dumb blonde jokes on me. I did just save your spots.” He gestured to the bug imbedded in the kid’s hair, not rising from his distinctly feline crouch on top of the child. “Care to do the honors?”

Marinette reached down, pleasantly surprised to find that it was a plastic joke bug that she untangled from the girls hair. She tried to ignore the alternating crazed evil screaming and sobbing coming from the girl. She’d deal with that in the twisted nightmares she’d have later. Marinette snapped the bug in her hand, finding it oddly brittle. The plastic glowed a malicious shade of purple and a dark moth fluttered up from it.

“You’d better catch that.” Chat Noir said solemnly.

Marinette carefully cupped it in her hands. She could feel the magic once again well up inside her and she listened to the lightness flowing through her body. She shut her eyes and blew gently into her hands and sensing rather than seeing as the luster caressed the flittering bug. The darkness melted off of it, cleansed. She released the glowing bug and watched as it rained relief down across the city in a red and black shimmer. It all felt so right to her and she reveled in the assurance that coursed through her.

Her moment was broken by the sobbing child. The young girl had been stripped of her distorted wings and venomous aura and had been left a teary, boogery mess. Marinette felt the energy drain out of her even as she attempted to muster what she could to comfort the girl. As she searched for the right words to say, Chat quickly raised himself up off the girl. He bent over to set the child onto her feet and knelt slowly in front of her. A gentle, clawed hand lifted to her check, diverting the quickly flowing tears to the side. Chat stared straight into the girl’s eyes. His bright eyes were half-lidded into a softened gaze. The sobbing ebbed away and the girl hiccuped, unable to break from his gentle gaze.

“I’m Chat Noir. What’s your name?” he asked.

“Marcie,” the girl sniveled.

“It’s okay now Marcie. You did nothing wrong and you have nothing to fear.”

He said it with so much conviction that no one could doubt it was true. Marinette found herself staring. She shouldn’t have been surprised. He cat was silly and irreverent, but for all his playing he never been anything but kind. This moment was something tender and fragile and simultaneously nothing like her Chat and everything like her Chat. Marcie bent her head until her forehead rested in the crook of his neck and Chat slowly wrapped his arms around her. The child arms quickly snaked around him, shaking as they grasped for purchase on his leather-clad back.

“Why don’t we get you home, kitten? Where do you live Marcie?” Chat asked as he lifted her into the air. Marcie whispered the answer in his ear and the cat nodded.

“Shall we meet tomorrow, Ladybug?” Chat turned his attention towards her, peering from around Marcie’s head. Marinette nodded dully; exhaustion weighed her down. The questions pounding in her head would have to quiet until tomorrow.

“That sounds like a good idea. I think I need to sleep for about 23 hours. Usual spot?”

“Sounds good.” He moved to leave.

“Chat,” Marinette whispered. He turned, listening. “Thank you.”

Her cat just smiled with all his goofy energy. His bright white teeth splitting his face from ear to ear.

“Of course, My Lady. Thank you.”

\---------------

 

Adrien leapt down from the roof to his windowsill, landing on four silent, padded feet. He quickly reverted to his human form and fell back on to his bed, arm flung over his closed eyes in the midnight darkness. The same scene danced across his eyelids: Ladybug, her eyes filled with equal parts composure and thrill as red and black rained down upon her. The light playing across her checks. His hands clenched tight across his chest.

There was a knock at the door. It echoed across his cavernous room.

“Adrien.” A cold voice glided across the room.  
 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took a while for me to really throw myself into this story. But now I am in and hope to update frequently. I am a good editor but a lazy one, so I didn't fully read this over. Sorry for any glaring mistakes (although I took some liberty with grammar).
> 
> I really mean for this story to show more of the relationship between chat and ladybug, even in the AU world (Yay for Chat turning into a real cat). There relationship just has so much trust in it and I love it. It's not meant to be so much about the fighting. Fighting is definitely a big part of their relationship though. I hope I wrote the action scenes alright!
> 
> It's also set to be pretty heartbreaking so just maybe prepare yourself- I don't want to rush it though. I like to see my sunshine cat boy suffer. I am sorry. I love him though.
> 
> Comments and Kudos greatly appreciated- Thank you for supporting my first ever fic!


	3. The Cat in Leather

“How old are you Chat Noir?” Marinette asked from her perch on the steel beam above her newly arrived cat. She took a small ounce of pride in watching the furry black shadow jolt up, startled. She didn’t think it should be so easy to sneak up on someone who claims to have ‘keen animal instincts’.

Chat tried to play his panicked jump off and leapt into a conspicuously casual stretch and yawn. It was not smooth.

“After everything that happened yesterday, that is your first question for me? Did my human form dazzle you? I suppose you couldn’t get my fine figure out of your head, eh?”

The young witch rolled her eyes. “Sure, Chat,” She drawled with all the sarcasm she could muster. “Visions of blonde black cats frolicked all through my dreams last night.”

Chat Noir leaped up to her beam, bouncing off the vertical support of the Tower. He settled comfortably in her lap, preening for pets. She ran a hand through his glossy fur, avoiding a sore spot a long his ribs. A habit she had quickly picked up. 

“It just seems like you know so much about all this magic stuff, but you look about my age.”

“Do I?” He purred. “It’s hard for me to tell how old you are with that nasty identity magic you cast on yourself. But, if you are also 16 years old, then perhaps it was destiny that we met, my Lady.”

“Indeed,” She replied, confirming her age. She picked up a delicate paw in her hand and pressed her lips gently to the glossy fur, like a lord lavishing attention on to a dainty lady. His pupils blew wide and his muzzle dropped open. Chat Noir looked about as close to swooning as a cat could. Marinette thought that she may just be the only person in the entire world to know what that looked like.  
She took advantage of his glazed distraction to get her practiced questions in order.

“So you know, right? You now what that magic was we faced yesterday?”

“Yes.” His mood sobered as he pulled back to reality from his pleasant daydreams. “It’s a type of manipulation magic, from the Hawkmoth line. Very unpleasant stuff. The magic possesses an object dear to a person who has experienced some sort of distress and allows Hawkmoth to manipulate the person.” Chat Noir was stiff between her hands.

“Bad magic exists, then? How does this not happen all the time?”

“No, no, no. Magic, like most powerful things in this world, is neither good nor bad. It just depends on the person wielding it. The Hawkmoth line isn’t a necessarily evil one; it’s just the Hawkmoth of Paris. He’s the bad one. The very bad one.” Chat said, darkly. Marinette didn’t like seeing her kitten like this. He wouldn’t even look her in the eye.

“You’ve seen this before, Chat.” It was a statement more than a question. “You knew how to purify it.”

“Yes.” Chat said. He extracted himself from her lap and leapt into a worried pace. “Six years ago. It was far more subtle than this though. No one in Paris even knew. Just little manipulations. No one ever got powers like this. We investigated it and we fought it when we could. We-” Chat cut off abruptly, turning away from her.

Marinette knew she shouldn’t ask. She knew this was taboo between them. She tried to physically bit her tongue, but once again, her mouth didn’t listen to her brain and the question slipped through.

“We?”

They stewed in silence for a moment.

“My witch.” 

She moved to sit beside him, lightly scratching him behind the ear the way she knew he liked. 

“We can fight this,” she said.

He shook himself, visibly, out of his reverie, and gave her a goofy smile. Cat faces were not designed to convey human smiles, Marinette decided. But she wasn’t ever going to tell him that.

“That we can, my Lady. And we will win, too. After all, who can stand before a beauty as mew-numental as yours.”

“Who told you cat puns were funny? They deserve to be trampled to death by a herd of angry kittens,” she groaned.

“Why you did my lady. Everytime I tell a claw-some joke, you remind me of how meow-nificent they are with your very catitude.” She pursed her lips. “See! There! My lady looooooves theeeeeemmmm,” he crooned at her in woobly sing-song.

“Stop!” She swatted at him playfully, turning her face to hide her failing neutral face. Chat Noir continued to yowl at her. “What is this? Is this singing?”

“My Lady loooooovesss them. She finds them paaawww—leaaasing,” he saunter across her lap to see her face and Marinette found herself twisting as far as her abs would let her. Finally she gave up, falling back to the ground in laughing tears. Her legs comically kicking up in the air accidentally caught her cats mid-section and launched him in to the air. 

He landed with a disproportionately heavy thud somewhere behind her, joining her in raucous laughter. As her fit subsided, she tilted her chin up to find the upside-down figure of the human Chat.

“Let me see you,” her voice was husky as she recovered her breath. He came beside her with silent footfalls and she sat up to inspect her leather-clad friend. They sat, mirroring each other with heaving chests as they struggled to regain composure. 

She pulled her gaze from his vibrant eyes to take in his golden bell and tight leather suit. His cat ears seemed like a Halloween gimmick but they twitched, almost imperceptibly, in a very animated way. She reached up with a shaking hand to confirm that they were indeed real and matched the glossy fur she so often pet.

Her hand traveled down to his check, but soon dropped as they both devolved into another convulsion of laughter at the touch. They each leaned forward by some implicit need until their foreheads touched. A perfect reflection of smiles and violent breathing.

“Why leather?” She giggled. “Someone is confident.”

He smiled. “Like what you see, my lady?” 

The settled into the atmosphere of breathy giggles. Here they sat, two magical heroes, in perhaps the most serene patch of Paris- high above the chaos of an early evening city- and they couldn’t stop sniggering like children on a sugar high. 

“You know,” Chat said in a low breath. “I hear spots are making a comeback.”

Marinette drew back and smacked him lightly on the head, self-consciously straightening her mask. “Stupid cat.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy heck, I figured out a timeline and Adrien is in for some serious trauma. Protect the sun child. Thanks for sticking with me.


	4. The Cat in the School

“CATACLYSM!” 

Marinette turned to face Chat Noir from her hiding spot. She was desperately flattened against a large hunk of a nearby building, which had flown down into the street through the akuma’s onslaught. Razor sharp envelopes pelted the other side of the stone, courtesy of the disgruntled mail man now calling himself Postal. She was finally getting the hang of their near daily battles. Falling into routine. The screams of the akuma victims. The excuses to be alone to cast her identity spell. The rush of power that flooded her as she tapped into the well of magic within her. The wind in her hair as she flew across the city. The boiling in her blood as she fought. Her blood was boiling a bit too hard in this fight, as they struggled against the bombarding paper. She tried to get her breathing under control as the violence she faced threatened to overwhelm her. The paper chipped away at her protective slab. Rocks rained down at her. Sweat dripped down into her eyes as she realized she was moments away from losing her cover. She stared at the cuts on her hands, sustained through the fight. And she was scared. Breathe, she thought. She had seen this before, she told herself. This was another akuma. Another victim. She had seen hard fights. She had seen violence. And she had always seen how to win, even if it escaped her now. 

But she had never seen this. Chat’s human hand bubbled with a strange black energy and Marinette felt air push past her towards Chat. The wind was knocked out of her with it. She looked around gasping, but she saw no wind rustle the debris scattered around her. 

Chat nimbly leaped over the rock he hid behind, claw extended in front of him. For a moment Ladybug saw him falling through the air, midway through his acrobatics. His pupils were small, eyebrows furrowed. She had never seen that expression on her kitty before. It was rage. He disappeared into the white deluge.

“Chat Noir! No!” Marinette yelled, panic gripping her. She felt her throat closing and her eyes blurring.

Suddenly the white of the paper exploded outward in a rush of bubbling black darkness, Chat Noir at its center. She watched as her kitty dashed forward behind the darkness, which burned up the letters that harmlessly struck it. As he made it to Postal, he leapt up into the air, releasing the blackness that incased his hand, and fell straight onto the akuma’s shoulders. The akuma bobbled, disoriented by the sudden weight of an angry human cat on his shoulders. Ladybug walked around her stone as the akuma let his attack falter. She prepared to fight. 

But she didn’t need to. Chat shifted his weight to send the victim crashing to the ground with an angry Chat Noir straddling him. In the fading light Marinette saw his claws dig into the man’s chest, eliciting a cry of pain. For a moment she was afraid. She closed her eyes, squashing that moment. This was her kitty. When she looked up at him again, Chat’s brow had smoothed, with his softened gazed turned towards her. Chat plucked the badge off of Postal's shirt and tossed it towards Marinette, who snatched it from the air and tore it in one swift motion.

She cupped the escaping butterfly into her hands and blew. Sighing as she watched the glittering mass of her magic slip from her hands, expanding to engulf the city. She loved this part. Even as she felt the well of magic in her emptying. Her soul felt full and she smiled. She couldn’t help it.

As the spell ended, she returned to reality and turned on her kitty. He sheepishly looked to the ground, kicking at the dirt. He knew what she would say.

Ladybug ran to him and threw her arms around his narrow shoulders. His pupils dilated in surprise.

“Ladybug?”

“I’m so glad you’re ok.”

She squeezed him, feeling him tense and then relax. Chat found himself wondering when the last time was that someone had said something like that to him, but quickly dispelled the thought as he looked down at his Lady.

“I thought you were hurt. What were you thinking running into that. And what was with that spell?” She pushed back from the hug, staring suspiciously up into his green eyes. “Wait- why haven’t you used that before. After all this time- When you could’ve- Why didn’t you- He-” She sputtered angrily. Chat smiled, stifling a laugh that he couldn’t fully explain. This was more of what he had suspected. His Lady always managed to surprise him though, and even under her steely gaze he found herself grinning.

“It’s not funny Chat Noir! Why haven’t you used this before?”

Chat chuckled. “Maybe I like seeing you struggle. You’re pretty when you fight.”

Marinette boiled at his laughter. She puffed out an annoyed harrumph and crossed he arms, turning away from his infuriating display.

“I’ll see you tomorrow then,” He said to her back.

Marinette turned back towards him, not intending to let the conversation go, but Chat Noir was already running off. The light of the setting sun behind him illuminated the blood dripping from the cuts that the Postal’s mail had sliced across his thighs. That was something she had seen before as well. 

Why hadn’t he used that before, She thought.

Maybe she wouldn’t push this point. Maybe she could wait. If there was one thing she knew of in this novel world of magic, it was that she trusted Chat Noir. 

\---

Marinette was hopelessly disengaged from this lecture. There was absolutely no way that Golgi Bodies and Endoplasmic Reticulums could possibly compete with the black cat pacing across the windowsill outside her classroom. He almost seemed like he was taunting her with his feline swagger. Every few minutes he would pause and his glinting eyes would sweep the classroom. Each time Marinette had to remind herself that he was NOT looking directly at her and there was NO WAY that her kitty could possibly know that this was his lady’s classroom and this was his lady’s desk and this was HIS LADY. 

In fact, Marinette couldn’t even be certain it was her cat, right? There were plenty of black cats in Paris, right? The more she tried to convince herself of this, the less she believed it. She swore it was in the way he walked- like he had a bit more purpose and a bit too little purpose. Like an awkward teen nervously pacing in a place he wasn’t supposed to be. She swore it was in his eyes- like they saw a bit too much of the human in people than any cat should. And as much as she wanted to think he wasn’t looking for her, she found herself locking eyes with him. And she was certain: this was Chat Noir. What was he doing here? Why didn’t everyone else see it? Wasn’t he being too obvious? It seemed so obvious to her. He didn’t match with the hundreds of black cats in Paris. He was different, couldn’t they see that? Or were ribosomes too interesting to her classmates?

Marinette forced her gaze back to the board; sweat beading up on her forehead. She found herself annoyed at Chat, for ruining one of the few days when she stood a chance of paying attention, as her usual golden-locked distraction was out with a cold. She, very purposefully, would not let herself look back out the window. Instead she let her mind run free with wild theories for why he was around. Was there an Akuma nearby? Should she find an excuse to leave? Had he figured out her identity? 

She chanced a glance at the window only to see him quickly drop from her sight. He had fallen from the windowsill. She gasped, mirrored by two or three of her peers who had been watching their unexpected visitor. Their teacher turned from the board and was met with some sputtering from her nervous students about a cat that had fallen. MMe Bustier scolded them and told them to focus on the lesson. 

Meanwhile, Marinette played through statistics in her head. They were on the third floor. She had read once that cat’s were more likely to survive falling 7 stories than three. Her mind cruelly presented her with images of an injured Chat Noir, inexplicably in human form, lying on the concrete, calling her name. 

She couldn’t stand it. She stood up. Mumbling that she had to go to the bathroom. As Soon as the classroom door shut behind her, she took off in a run towards the schools front door. Once downstairs and outside, she snuck along the wall, hoping to stay out of sight of her distracted classmates. She counted the windows, until she was directly below her classroom and sigh in relief. Chat Noir did not lie bleeding out on the ground, which was actually grass, not concrete (thanks, mind). She sunk down against the wall, feeling silly. She heard a mewl and looked up to find the black cat in question. Green eyes peered curiously down at her from his cocked head. She swore she saw a smile pulling at his feline lips. His smirk riled her, but she caught herself. Technically, as far as he knew, he was staring at a very normal Marinette Dupain Chang who was fussing over a stray black cat. In fact, he probably didn't even know her name. 

She smiled and stood. She held her hand out, cooing to her partner as she held her hand up towards his tree branch. He froze, caught. She expected him to run away and preserve some dignity, but, oddly enough he relaxed and extended his neck to sniff her had. It was a very feline movement and Marinette would have questioned if this were actually her kitty if he hadn’t locked eyes with her as he did it. Too human. Too Chat Noir.

She giggled as Chat leapt from his branch, bouncing off her extended arm to land on her shoulders. She reached up to scratch behind his ears. He curled up around her neck, purring. Growing aware that she was within the sight of her classmates upstairs, she retreated towards the wall. As the leaned against it, the “cat” moved to the side, leaping into her lap as she sunk to the ground. He gazed up at her, curled in her lap. This was odd behavior for a human-cat. Marinette realized this. This was odd behavior for Chat Noir. But his eyes held a dare in them, and Marinette wouldn’t back down. No matter how goofy he acted, Chat Noir always had his reasons. 

She began to pet him. Two fingers massaged the loose skin behind his ears, and he pressed his faces into her open palm. She smiled. She roughly dragged her hand across the top of his head, pulling the skin tight so that his eyes slit up, lopsided. She laughed at this stupid face, and he turned away, insulted. As an apology, she gently dragged her hand across his furry back, fingers skipping over his ribs. He shivered, and she pressed harder, only to elicit a pained feline screech. His ribs were still tender, although she had no idea why. She glanced at the thin cuts along his legs that she could discern through his fur. She pulled her hands back lifting them both palms out- the picture of innocence. Chat glared at her, but resettled himself in her lap. She felt the thin bones of his jaw press against her thigh as he laid his head down. He trusted her.

She fell into a rhythm as she pet him. Her eyes closed as she the sun warmed her upturned face. White butterflies fluttered across the dandelion-strewn glass. The picture of idyllic calm. Chat purred in her lap, the picture of felinity if he weren’t far too still and trusting for your average stray cat. Just a minute, she thought, as her breathing evened. She'd give herself this moment. 

\--

She woke with a sharp intake of breath as Alya shook her shoulders. Chat was nowhere to be seen and she had detention.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry that I am bad at anything approaching regularity. But it's now summer- so we'll see! Thank you for supporting my first fic!
> 
> Kudos and comments are much loved- need I say that?


	5. The Cat at Home

Marinette stared angrily out at the Parisian skyline as she was stood up, once again, by a cat. Well, if she was going to get stood up, this was the spot to do it. Evening after evening, she flew up here, to the top of the Eiffel tower, and the view never got old. She watched the fading twilight as it was replaced with the twinkling city lights. The cold air whipped through the clouds, brushing her face.

She sighed. It wasn’t like she needed him here. It wasn’t like she missed him, she told herself. She tried not to worry. She tried not to think about the rage he held the last time she really saw him. Or that look in his eyes when he visited the school. She tried not to think of that dark power she saw coursing through him, or his evasion when she asked him about it. She could deal with that the next time she saw him. 

She drank in the sight laid out before her, fixing it in her mind as a reprieve for the boring lessons that awaited her at school tomorrow. A shadow flittered across the lights. For a crazy second she thought that maybe it was Hawkmoth, her mortal enemy, flying across the sky. The shadowed turned, growing bigger as it approached her perch. She breathed a sigh she hadn’t realized she’d been holding as the witch landed next to her. The witch was dressed in a red and black spotted dress, floofed out with layers and layers of fabric. Marinette found herself admiring the design work of the outfit and felt self-conscious in the functional jumpsuit she had chosen as her magical garb. Antennae sprouted out from the woman’s short, black pixie cut. She was shorter than Marinette- the type of person who could most accurately be described as tiny.

“Tikki!” Marinette exclaimed as she threw herself into her dame’s arms. The surprise of seeing the woman melted into joy, as the truth clicked into place in her mind. 

Tikki laughed, bubbling over with her usual, overwhelming goodwill. “Glad to see you too, Marinette!”

“So it was you, huh? You’re the one who gave me my powers?”

“You figured that out, huh?”

“After Chat Noir told me about Dames and all that, I thought about it a lot. I never thought it was you. But, oddly enough, I’m not surprised.”

Tikki had been a frequent customer at the Dupain-Cheng bakery, and Marinette had easily befriended her. The woman often gave Marinette advice, as the highschooler spilled all of her embarrassing secret to her. Tikki was just that kind of person, Marinette thought. The kind that everyone instantly told their deepest secrets to. Marinette’s secrets had never felt very deep. Most afternoons consisted of her mushing about her latest designs or the fact that Adrien smiled at her that day. Marinette still remembered the last day that Tikki had visited the bakery- the same day that Marinette discovered her powers (What a coincidence). Tikki had said something strange to the young designer, as she’d complained about her awkwardness. 

“Marinette you are clumsy. But you are also surprising, unpredictable, and unbelievable sweet. You are extraordinarily talented. And you are unique. Isn’t that Miraculous?” Tikki had gently held her hand. The moment had felt important to Marinette. 

She was glad it was Tikki.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” she asked. The two witches made there way to the edge of the platform. Their feet dangled off the ledge against the city backdrop.

“Oh I meant to, but I was called away by some unforeseen matters. By the time I came back I saw you had met the dear black cat of Paris. I liked that. I knew Chat Noir would take care of you. And it was time he had someone to take care of him. But when I saw you up here tonight I just had to come. I want to know everything. How do you like Magic? Are you getting the hang of it? What’s your favorite spell? Isn’t flying wonderful?” Tikki gushed. Then suddenly faltered. “Are you mad at me? For making you face this fight?” She looked unsure of herself.

“Oh Tikki,” Marinette said, “I could never be mad at you for this. Of course I was uncertain at first. It was all so new and a lot to get my head around. But I don’t think I could give up magic now if I tried. It’s become a part of me. I feel so right and I never even knew things were wrong before. When I’m Ladybug, I get this courage that I’ve never felt before as clumsy old Marinette.”

“Marinette! Don’t talk about yourself that way! Mask or not, you are always Ladybug and you are always Marinette. That courage exists in Marinette just like that clumsiness exists in Ladybug.”

Marinette nodded, blushing. Tikki always had a way of making her feel important, like she really saw Marinette and she really liked what she saw. It filled her up with so much joy and yet embarrassed the heck out of her. Marinette figured that that was just the way one feels when someone sees you like that. Tikki saw the young girl’s blush and graced her with a change of topic.

“So any action tonight?”

“No Paris is quiet- Thank goodness. I don’t have my trusty partner her to back me up. That stupid cat stood me up again.”

Tikki’s brow furrowed. “He’s been gone a while?”

“Three days, ” Marinette said. Not counting the day she saw him at school. “He’s such a weird guy.”

“Yeah, I guess he is pretty weird. But that’s a good thing. I like seeing him smile. Not all black cats smile, you know. Comes with the whole bad luck territory.” Tikki smiled tightly. “I keep telling him to get a Pact, you know. He doesn’t have to live the way he does. Have you two never talked about it? I thought, with the right Ladybug….” Tikki trailed off. 

“Pact? What’s a Pact?” Once again Marinette mentally beat herself up for her ignorance. “Ugh! I wanted to skip ahead to the part where I know everything. Just like you. And Chat Noir.”

“I wouldn’t rush that. Someday, when you know everything you may just wish you could come back to this moment. There is something miraculous in innocence.” Tikki smiled. Sometimes Tikki was too sweet, and Marinette couldn’t believe the words out of her mouth.

“But, well, a Pact exists between a witch and a familiar. For a black cat, that Pact will help alleviate some of his bad luck.”

“Bad luck?”

“You do know that black cats are the embodiment of bad luck, right? They live their lives perpetually followed by it. I don’t think you realize how much Luck runs our lives, until you run out of it.” Tikki looked out across the city with sad eyes.

“And Chat lives like that? It can’t really be all that bad. Chat is such a goofball all the time. Some days, I just want to punch his dumb, punny, smiley face. It’s like he never has a bad day.”

“Sometimes, when every day is a bad day, you have to smile just to get through.” Seeing the look on her mentee’s face, Tikki hastily added, “I’m not saying it’s like that for Chat! Just- you know- you never can judge a book by its cover and all that.”

“We’ll form a Pact then.” Marinette stated. “Why shouldn’t we? All it does is help him- why hasn’t he mentioned it?” She was starting to feel a little miffed at him for withholding information.

“Well, there is more to it then that. The Pact connects you two. Partners- for real. It will compel him to help you- although there shouldn’t be much problem for him in that. He likes you.”

Marinette blushed. “We are partners! Of course he likes me. I like him too.” She sniffled and did her best to meet her Dame’s suspicious gaze. “I’ll make a Pact the next time I see him! Whenever that may be. Dumb cat…”

Tikki thought for a moment. “If he hasn’t brought it up himself…. Maybe don’t push him on this.” A thought seemed to strike her. “Oh- It isn’t a very good time of year for him either.”

“Time of year?” Marinette asked.

“Maybe that’s something you should ask him about in person. I’m sure he’ll be around soon.” 

Tikki was the type of person that everyone spilled their secrets too- in large part because she was so happy and full of love. But Marinette thought that sometimes that love left her too open. There was sadness in her eyes and Marinette was suddenly struck by the idea that she didn’t want to know about this time of year.

She would ask Chat any way.

For now though, she had the beautiful Parisian skyline and body filled with magic. And a dear friend sitting sad beside her. That, she could fix that.

“Flying is wonderful though,” Marinette said.

“Isn’t it!!!” 

And, like that, Marinette had the night open to talk, unrestrained, about Magic and the joy that had followed it with the one person in the world how could make that joy into something bigger.

 

\----

 

Marinette may have regretted her late night the night before just a smidge. She may have felt this regret over her third cup of coffee as she slunk to her seat while the morning bell rang. She noticed, with a pang of embarrassing longing, that Adrien’s seat was, once again, empty. Alya jabbed her ribs sharply with an unfortunately pointy elbow.

“Girl, were you up late designing, AGAIN?” Alya whisper-scolded her.

Marinette gave her best friend a noncommittal shrug and a I’m-not-saying-I-did-but-I’m-not-saying-I-didn’t eye roll. Alya’s eyes narrowed to slits and Marinette preemptively cringed at the lecture on the importance of sleep that she would receive later.

The mom-friend was fortunately distracted when Adrien quietly pushed the classroom door open, interrupting the beginning of the lesson. This was an odd sight- Adrien was usually the first one in. He was always a bit too eager to start class. Marinette quickly brought her hands up to smooth her pigtailed hair, lamenting her bag-laden eyes, until she saw that Adrien looked even worse than she felt. Of course he was still gorgeous- his godly looks managed to make even the mottled bruise shielding his manly check bones look purposeful and chic. He had a restrained smile plastered across his face. Kind, quiet, and polite. It was his eyes though that made Marinette’s brow furrow with concern. They were empty of his usual sparky eagerness. The bags under them made Marinette look positively alert. Adrien met her gaze but quickly looked to the ground as he sat down. He ignored Nino’s elbow jabs, which mimicked Alya’s earlier prodding. 

Marinette struggled to focus, worried as she was for her Adrien. The end of the lesson could not come quickly enough. The minutes ticked by and she saw Adrien glancing at the clock as well, slowly tensing as the minutes hand reached towards break time. 

Eventually the break did come and everyone rushed the young model. Marinette pushed aside her annoyance. After all her own thoughts of “Let the boy have his space!” also conflicted directly with her desire to ask him every single question that had raced through her mind during the class.

“Finally decided to show up, huh, supermodel?” Kim asked with a grin.

“Yeah, I had a nasty flu” Adrien answered.

“Flu? You’re sure it’s gone? You look terrible.” Kim said.

Adrien’s face turned bright red and he looked away. “Yep. Fit as a fiddle.” He flipped through some books in his bag, aimlessly.

Marinette was unsurprised when Chloe sauntered over from her seat, where she was pretty sure she had heard the shrew trashing Rose’s outfit. Marinette prepared to defend Adrien from whatever mean comments the heartless girl had for the boy of her dreams. She hoped that if she strung the words together before hand, she might be able to get them out before Adrien looked at her and she turned into an unfortunate pile of mush. 

“Give Adrien a break, guys,” Chloe said. Marinette nearly fell out of her seat.

Adrien shot the blonde a look. Marinette would have expected it to be grateful, in light of the unexpected humanity of Chloe’s intrusion and Adrien’s natural good nature. Instead, she was surprise to see a cross between anger and annoyance draw his handsome features down. The look fell away in the span of a millisecond, but Chloe got it. She withdrew from Adrien’s desk with a dramatic “alright, alright” and a lot of hand waving. Adrien didn’t look guilty, just tired, as Chloe plopped down in her chair with an angry huff. 

“That was unexpected,” said Alya. 

Marinette wondered if maybe the two blondes were in a fight. Maybe she had just gotten a glimpse into their supposed childhood friendship.

“Are you sure you’re okay, dude? Where’d that nasty bruise come from?”

“It’s nothing,” Adrien dismissed, “just bumped into a door. Stupid. It’s nothing”

He sunk his head down to his desk as class resumed. The conversation was over.

 

\---

 

Marinette was full of sighs as she sat at her kitchen counter. It felt like everything in her life was conspiring to force the sighs out of her. Chat and his stupid bad luck and his stupid disappearing act. Adrien and stupidly beautiful face and his sad eyes. What happened to all the ungodly happy-go-lucky boys that were supposed to surround her?

A wrapper crinkled in front of her and Marinette looked up to see her mother place a cupcake on the counter in front of her.

“What’s with all the sighing, bug? You’re too young for so much bitterness. It’ll rot your teeth. You need something sweet in your life. Eat this. It’ll make it better.”

Marinette smiled and unwrapped the confection. She really had the best mom in the world.

 

\---

 

Marinette schooled her face into a perfect mask as she dropped down beside the black cat perched on the edge of the top of the Eiffel tower. She silently sat beside him. With all this sad talk about bad luck and bad days, she expected the silence to drag on. But once again today, she was surprised. Chat Noir turned to her and his face spilt into that silly smile that had no business on a cat’s face.

“Well look what the cat dragged in,” he said.

“I should be the one saying that. Where were you Chat Noir?” So much for acting like it hadn’t bothered her. 

“That’s purrrrrrrrsonal” He dragged out the purr way too long and sprinkled it with a real feline purr. Marinette wanted so badly to press but reigned herself in. He was entitled to personal time. She wouldn’t want him prying into her purrsonal time (ugh stupid cat).

She consoled herself with just grumbling “idiot” and feeding him a scathing eyeroll.

Chat gave his cat laugh- a mixture between deep throat purring and human chuckling. Chat sometimes had a hard time translating human happiness into cat form without it coming across as totally demonic.

“I was worried about you,” She muttered. Chat Noir gave her a curious look. 

“Thanks, My Lady, but there is no need to worry your pretty antennae about it.”

“I don’t have antennae!” 

“What sort of Ladybug doesn’t have antennae.”

“I don’t need them to kick your butt,” Marinette said, still feeling resentment at his disappearing act.

Chat chuckled. “Bring it bug!”

“Ok.” Marinette looked around. “First to that billboard wins.”

“You’re on.” Chat leapt from the tower, turning human as he did. He extended his stick, pushing it against the Eiffel tower to propel him to a nearby roof, which he tumbled on to. Marinette looked towards her broom, but decided better of it. That would hardly be a race. Inspiration struck, as she conjured a yoyo. She leapt from the tower following the path of her cat. With magical accuracy she aimed it a low-lying streetlamp, heart thumping as she zoomed across the ground and was flung straight up into the sky again. She laughed, feeling the heat of her adrenaline against the cold night air. As she approached the billboard she tracked down the dark figure of Chat Noir leaping and tumbling from roof to roof on all fours, his long tail whipping behind him. She pushed her aching magically enhanced muscles and swung the final distance just as chat leapt off his final roof. Both heroes landed below the billboard with a thud, somersaulting through the landing to reduce strain on their knees. They lay were they landed, breathing heavy as the stared up at the purple Gabriel Agreste Billboard. Marinette’s thundering heart missed a terrifying beat as she recognized her handsome classmates enlarged face smoldering down at her.

As her breath returned, she turned to her companion. “I needed that. Gotta work off that cupcake I ate today. And the cookies. And the brownies.”

Chat turned to her, wide-eyed. “Cupcake?” He asked, like she had just casually mentioned eating diamonds. 

“I may spend a bit too much time inside of a bakery and I may have a mother that is too sweet for her own good.” Chat’s gaze went a little hazy- distant.She thought she saw a hint of drool glinting on his lip. 

“Lucky. My dad accuses me of getting fat if I so much as glance at a cookie.” Chat Noir froze a little, incredulous that he’d just let that detail slip. Maybe it was staring up at that billboard that loosened him up. Like the façade could shield him, even as he sported Cat ears and a tail.

“You’re all skin and bones, Chat. You could do with a little fattening,” Marinette said, concerned.

Chat Noir laughed but didn’t answer. She stared at his serene face. His eyes were closed, guarding his expressive eyes from her inquiring gaze.

“Hey, Chat. Let’s make a Pact.”

Chat Noir’s panting laugh halted for a second, and Marinette remembered, too late, Tikki’s advice. 

“No,” Chat said simply, rolling to his feet. 

“I want to help you. It’ll turn your luck around, right”

“A Pact does more than that. You don’t know what you are asking. Where did you even hear about that?”

Marinette smiled. “My Dame.”

Chat turned back towards her. “You met her then?”

“Yep. I should’ve realized it was Tikki.”

“TIKKI?” Chat’s pupils dilated to saucers- the picture of feline surprise. “Tikki is your dame? No wonder you’re so incredible.”

“Is she famous then?”

Chat chuckled. “You could say that. Most witches inherit from another witch. The power is passed from one to another. But you got your power from the Goddess of Luck herself. The real Ladybug. The Original. She’s more myth than reality for most people.”

Marinette considered this for a moment. Tikki had always been very real to her. Maybe she her kindness was a little otherworldly sometimes, but the young woman had always been real with Marinette. And evidently Chat knew Tikki. Her Dame had definitely known him. The question forming on her lips quickly died as a distant part of Paris erupted into an inferno of screams. The two heroes turned quickly towards the rising smoke. With a nod at each other, they silently took off towards the chaos.

 

\--------------

 

Later that night, the exhausted black cat dropped down into an ally a block from his house. He quickly released the transformation and Adrien walked calmly out into the open. As he passed through the gates into his yard, he was hit, as always, with a feeling of claustrophobia. The gates clanged shut behind and he suppressed the panic building inside of him. Sometimes he wondered if this was a side effect of being a black cat- an animal instinct. He tried to remember if he had always felt this way as he walked through his front door, stepping quietly up the stairs and slipping into his room. He was grateful to the cat in him that granted him the quiet patter of feline footsteps. 

Adrien brushed the fine layer of dust coating his golden hair and turned on his unnecessarily large bath. He caught his reflection in the mirror. His hand floated up of its own accord to the yellowing skin dashed across his cheek bone. This was never a fun time of year. He was glad to find that the magic mask had covered most of the sensitive skin and anything left exposed could be covered by the late night shadows. He sighed and turned away, making his way back towards his computer while the bath filled. 

He started as his door opened quietly. No knock. That was not a good sign.

His father glided over to him. The older man's hands trailing across his desk. Adrien’s gaze fell to the ground, locked on the expensive loafers.

“You finally made it home.” It was really a statement.

“I’m sorry father, it was such a nice night. I was just taking a walk and got caught up in the akuma attack.” He felt his father’s eyes raking over him, no doubt taking in the dusting over his blonde hair. 

Suddenly, arms snaked around him. Fingers splayed across his ribs. A pointed chin brushed through his messy hair. Buttons cut into Adrien’s cheek as the embrace tightened. Adrien fought his animal instinct, relaxing into his father’s arms. Maybe this wasn’t such a bad time. Maybe it could be better this year.

“I was so worried. There was a lot of damage this time. I saw it on the news. And then I got the call. From Natalie. That you weren’t in your room. You should have called. Don’t you know you should have called? After everything we’ve been through I thought you would have at least that much respect. That much common sense. Where is your common sense, boy?”

Gabriel pushed his son away, catching him by the shoulder at arms length. 

“I’m sorry, father.” Adrien shrugged off his father’s grasp. He feigned sudden interest in the roar of water from his bathroom. Its timbre conveyed a full tub. He walked towards the bath.

“I know. I’ll do better next time. I’ll call.” He spoke over his shoulder. Sometimes if he pretended everything was fine, everything would be fine. 

The boy closed the tap and straightened. Catching sight of another surprise in the mirror. His father was behind him. Sometimes that man moved as quietly as Chat Noir. Adrien cursed in his head. He whirled around. Facing the man. Facing his father. Facing this time of year. Facing his bad luck.

“What if there is no next time? There isn’t always. Don’t you know that?” His fathers voice steadily rose. Anger replacing panic. Sometimes anger was easier to manage than panic.

“I’m sorry, Dad,” Adrien repeated. His eyes dropped to the rug across to the tile.

“Look at me when I am talking you, boy.”

Adrien's eyes lifted to see the hands pushing towards him at chest level. His center of gravity fell back. His feet grasped for purchase along the bath rug, only to slide it across the tile. He fell down unprepared. Knees locked. His shoulder knocked painfully against the tub’s edge while his hip hit hard against the resistant floor. Cold seeped into him through the margin of skin between his shirt and jeans. His skin felt tight along his bones. That would bruise.

“Don’t you know? Why do you have to act like this?” His father was shouting. “There are people who care about you. I care about you. Why can’t you care, huh? Do you not love me?”

“I love you” Adrien mumbled. He gazed up at the man hanging over him, his heart thumping painfully against his ribs. He felt it pounding in his throat. 

“DO YOU?” Gabriel yelled over and over again as he grabbed his son by the shoulders. Adrien didn’t fight his instinct. He pushed against the hands holding him down, but couldn’t gain advantage over his father’s leveraged weight above him. He managed to rise a little only to realize his mistake. His father pushed and twisted and yelled. He turned Adrien around. No! Adrien thought as the tub’s flat water rushed up into his sight. He kicked his legs out as his face poured into the water. Suddenly, the privacy and calm of the tub turned to violence for the boy. His ears fought against the pounding quiet of the water, catching vicious words. It was an eternity and a second. 

Adrien fought for cold air as his head was jerked up by his hair. His scattered brain grappled with the fog descending on him. He tried to hear his father. He tried to shout his apologies. He wasn’t sure if he succeeded, but the water surged up towards him once again. Another eternity. Another second. Fog descending. He wasn’t sure how many times he kicked. How many times he yelled. How many times the water pushed against him. He wasn’t sure what his father yelled or what he yelled. He wasn’t sure if his father was crying or he was. He wasn’t sure when his father left, either. But he was pretty sure he heard “This is your fault.” He wasn’t sure if he believed it.

Adrien pressed his back against the once more peaceful tub. He reached over and pulled the plug. He’d shower tonight. He braced his elbows across his bent knees. His eyes followed the grout work of the tiles as clear droplets fell into his sight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I told you I like to hurt the sunshine son. I'm sorry. I do love him though. How do you feel about this chapter? Let me know in the comments!
> 
> I have failed miserably at keeping anything close to consistency in regards to chapter length. Does that bother people? On the bright side, I might finally start updating regularly. 
> 
> Likes and Comments would be much appreciated! This is my first fic and feedback would be lovely and encouraging.


	6. The Cat and the Cupcake

“Marinette! Alya is here!” Her mother’s voice drifted up from the trap door that connected her room to the house.

“Send her up!” Marinette called down, without looking up from her sketch book and latest late-night design.

Moments later Alya flung open the hatch with the pure power only found in very excitable journalists on a trail.

“So,” The brunette instantly began, “The Ladyblog is a officially a reputable journalistic endeavor.”

“Why’s that?” Marinette asked as she slid over to let Alya join her on the chaise.

“Because the wise and inquisitive official Ladyblogger- cough, cough – me – is now officially digging into the official origins of Paris’ saviors.”

“That’s a lot of officials,” Marinette giggled at her friend’s contagious enthusiasm, while squelching a tiny bit of nervous fear.

“That’s because it is all very official,” Alya stated with confidence.

“What’s got you all worked up then?”

“Well, I was thinking about what we talked about- about Chat Noir’s Cataclysm and how weird it was and why didn’t he use it before and what exactly it was-" Alya sometimes forgot to breathe when she was worked up, so Marinette started taking deep breaths, indicating that her friend she should copy her. After a single deep breath Alya continued at a slightly more human pace.

“So I posted to the Ladyblog, asking if anyone had any information. You know, crowdsourcing. And, like a good journalist, I went through hundreds of responses. Thousands, really. And even though a lot of them were vague and unreliable, I found that a lot of stories matched up. People who didn’t even know each other all had stories about something similar happening in the past with a black cat.”

“Chat Noir?” Marinette asked.

“Well in most of the stories he was a real feline black cat. The first stories I found were back from 6 years ago. People talked about how they found themselves or a loved one doing things they couldn’t remember. Bad things. Life ruining things. But always in really personal ways. Like they would go and quit their job and couldn’t for the life of them remember why. 

“One girl said that her boyfriend broke up with her. Shouted some really nasty stuff at her. Slapped her. But he didn’t seem like himself. And then this black cat showed up and scratched him. The cat lured him away. The boyfriend later found her and didn’t remember any of what he said. He said he just woke up in this alley with this woman dressed up like a peacock with a black cat on her shoulders and a huge mess around him. He felt awful. "The woman helped him up. He said that she looked really sad. She told him to ‘make things right’ and tapped him on the head with this fan she had and suddenly he knew he had to go apologize to his girlfriend. And then the peacock lady parkoured her way up the side of the building and disappeared. The whole thing was super surreal for him. The girl didn’t believe him at the time, but now with Ladybug and Chat Noir around, the surreal is starting to seem a lot more real. 

“There were a lot of stories like that. People couldn’t remember what they’d done. They’d wake up with a Black Cat and a Peacock and suddenly things seemed better. And they also said they couldn’t help but work hard after that. Work at their relationship. Or to get their job back. To get into shape. To get that scholarship. To get the girl. To make amends.”

“That’s really weird, but do you really think it’s related to what happening right now? What happened to that peacock girl? And is it really Chat Noir?” Marinette asked.

“That I have no idea about,” Alya answered. “That old dynamic duo seems to have disappeared 4 years ago. Along with all the weird not-remembering stories. Although I guess if they don’t remember, and the Peacock isn’t there to help, then maybe that’s why I don’t hear any stories anymore. But the Peacock definitely seems to be gone. Just disappeared one day. No word on how or why. And how many sentient seeming black cats do you think there are in Paris?”

“One is already a surprisingly large population of human-cat hybrids, thank you very much.”

Alya threw her head back and laughed. “Yeah I think so too. I don’t know how many more puns the city can handle. It’s an affront to our French sensibilities.” Alya put on a snotty affect and turned up her nose- imitating a certain classmate of theirs and eliciting a laugh from both girls.

“So…. You didn’t find anything on Ladybug, right?” Marinette asked, attempting casual.

“No,” Alya flopped back on the chaise. “Nothing. The woman is a mystery. Apparently she just appeared that day when the first akuma attacked. Lucky for us. I don’t know what we’d do without her. What if she disappears one day? Like Peacock?”

That took Marinette aback. “No,” She replied instantly. “No, why would she disappear? She has a responsibility to the people of Paris now.”

“Yeah, but so did Peacock. And from what I heard, she wasn’t the type to take that responsibility lightly.”

Marinette’s brow furrowed at that. Alya saw her friend's discomfort and opted for a change in subject.

“So did you finish the history assignment?”

Marinette let out a strangled yelp- indicating that this was not a good change in topic. Alya laughed.

 

\---

 

Ladybug soared above her city with her feet swinging gently off her broom. She cradled a pink box in her hand, desperately hoping she could stave off her clumsy streak long enough to not shower an unexpected citizen with the contents of her prize. As she touched down in their usual meeting spot on the tower, she took in the empty platform. She was early tonight, but she hoped Chat Noir would make it. She quickly set up her carton on one of the beams, unloading its contents so that it would be illuminated by a shaft of moonlight. Then she hid behind another nearby beam, hoping to surprise her partner.

Just as she had that thought, four soft padded feet landed on her shoulders. The first time Chat had done this she had screamed, grabbed the unfamiliar weight and chucked the kitty off the side of the Eiffel tower. She was lucky he was magical. Admittedly though, he shouldn’t be jumping on overpowered teenage girls in a deserted area. Her jump-scare tolerance was evidently increasing, since this time she only flinched.

“Paw- don me, My Lady. You’re here early tonight”

She should have known she couldn’t surprise a cat.

“Gosh darn it, Chat, can’t you ever be surprised?”

“You surprise me everyday,” he said with a purr. He jumped off of her shoulders, propelling himself towards her gift. The black cat circled into the darkness behind the cupcake. The pink of his tongue mirrored the pink icing as he licked his lips. “Everyday,” her repeated quietly. 

Chat lowered his head to the ground and slunk forward in a hunters crouch as he moved towards the cupcake. Ladybug did not stifle her laugh at his dramatic antics. He raised his hindquarters in the air, giving it a little wiggle as he fixed his gaze on his prey. Just as he pounced, a siren crackled through the air. He looked up with a pink patch spotting his nose and sighed.

“You have cat to be kitten me”

Ladybug groaned at both the sudden interruption and the aggressive pun as she reached for her broom. Chat glanced anxiously between cupcake and the broom. He let out a defeated whine before bounding down to join Ladybug.

“No one better steal my cupcake,” He declared as he balanced himself along the narrow wooden beam.

“If someone scales the Eiffel tower for it- they deserve it,” Ladybug laughed. She built up the magic inside her and angled it down, feeling her feet lift off. The two were propelled into the night sky.

 

\---

 

The duo touched down on a roof, surveying the flashing red and blue lights below. The police were staked out around a jewelry store, their armored cars arranged as a haphazard barrier. Weapons were drawn.

“I thought these types of crimes were down since we started patrolling the streets,” Marinette commented. As a civilian she should be running from this scene. This was no place for Marinette the fashion-loving baker’s daughter. But she felt the magic coursing through her. The protection of her summoned suit. Ladybug handled mere armed robbers with ease.

“Looks like the robbers are still inside.” The cat’s wide green glinted with the flickering lights below. Ladybug considered the situation for a moment. They didn’t know how many people were inside, how they were armed, and if there were any hostages.

“Up for a little undercover work, kitty?”

Chat Noir’s lips curled up over his short muzzle. A smile.

“Fur sure, My Lady.”

He quickly leapt over the side of the roof, bounding off the pipes and ledges jutting out from the building. His paws touched down quietly on the ground. He crouched in the doorway, out of the line of sight of the door’s window. The younger police officers couldn’t help but stare at the now recognizable, crime-fighting cat. Chat Noir couldn’t help it and when he caught their wide eyes and gaping mouths he gave them a decidedly human wink.

He gently nudged the door open, noting that the lock had been shot off. By the time the masked men inside turned towards the tinkling bell positioned above the door, the black cat had already slipped into the store’s dark corner. He counted three ski-masked men, who were already shaking off the bell as a product of nervous and admittedly justified paranoia. Two of the men continued shoveling jewels into a canvas bag from their position behind the counter. They seemed to have found a collection of small diamonds to pilfer. The third robber anxiously glanced between his cohorts and the flashing lights outside, while shrilly shouting obvious things at them. His automatic rifle swinging wildly through the air. They were decidedly high strung, but still seemed suspiciously like they thought they could get out of this if they were still scooping up jewels. Chat couldn’t rule out hostages until he got a peek behind the counter, so he cautiously stalked along the edge of the room, keeping a firm eye on the men above him. 

In fact, he was so focused on the men that he didn’t see the mouse trap until it snapped loudly down on his foot and he let out an undignified yowl. As he looked down at the ironic trap he silently prayed that the men were too focused on their pursuit to have noticed his severe lapse in stealth. He looked up to lock eyes with all three gaping men. Chat tried to play it cool and mew it off like an average cat, but it came off as more of a question.

“Meow?”

The room erupted in gunfire as Chat took off from the store, hopping over his trapped foot as he burst through the door with strength unbecoming of an average cat.

As he made it outside he was quickly swept off his feet by his red and black spotted savior. She swooped down on her broom leaning down to scoop him while she zipped up into the air. He grinned up at her as she held him by his narrow ribcage, legs dangling long beneath him as she leveled in the air.

“What have you done now silly cat?”

“My knight in shining armor!” Chat mock swooned before sobering. “No hostages my lady. Three men. They’re armed to the teeth but I don’t think you need me to tell you that anymore.” He looked poignantly below at the flickering thunder of gun fire. “Looks like they’re a bit jumpy. Wonder why.”

Ladybug snorted. “Looks like we’ll just have to calm them down then.”

“They still seem like they think they’ll get out of this. I guess we can’t quite rule out that they are crazy considering that they ARE robbing a jewelry store.”

The heroine nodded seriously, contemplating something. Chat Noir cocked his head. He knew that look.

She landed beside the police, quickly ducking to join them behind their vehicles. She relayed the information to the officers and told them her plan. They nodded eagerly. Paris no longer questioned their young savior, and the policemen looked relieved to have her help.

The officers scattered to relay her commands as the gunfire ceased. In the echoing silence they set to work rolling their cars forward. 

“They’re feeling pressured,” Chat relayed, his night vision eyes acting as binoculars for Ladybug. She was perched on the far end of the roof, listening to Chat via their magical connection. “They’re pulling back towards the back room,” Chat stated, eyes not leaving the store in front of him. Ladybug peered down into the alley on the opposite side of the building, away from the police, just in time see a hand reach out and unlatch the small window below her. 

“Thought so,” She whispered to herself. 

She drew in a deep breath as a rifle muzzle poked out from the window. The robber wiggled through gun hand first. She waited until he fell from the window and swiftly scanned the alley. His compatriot stuck his head out to look around as well before withdrawing and poking his rifle through to shimmy through the window the same way as his pal.

Ladybug dropped from her perch, twisting in the air to face towards the building. She landed heavy on the first robber, the world slowed for her as the magic built in her. Her leg kicked out to knock the gun away from the man below her. Her hand reached out, grabbing her target on the first try. How lucky. She slammed the gun out of Robber #2’s hand with a closed fist to his wrist. Then twist her arm to seize his forearm tightly in her hand. She leaned back, using the momentum of Robber #1 falling down to pull #2 through the window. This is magic she thought, as he arced in the air above her and slammed into the opposite wall. She heard the clatter of trashcans as he landed heavy and, most likely, unconscious. She vaguely noticed that diamonds twinkled about her soft-soled feet.

She dropped to the ground and pushed towards the wall below the window as Robber #3 poked his gun. She grabbed her summoned yoyo, her new favorite toy, and threw it. The red and black disk sailed through the air past an alleyway pipe, she flicked her wrist the yoyo returned, U-turning around the pole as it flew towards the intruding gun. It happened so quickly that the man hadn’t even opened fire yet. The yoyo wrapped around the muzzle and yanked it off course and away from its master’s hand.

Ladybug heard cursing inside as the criminal realized his predicament. He was trapped and unarmed. She opened her magical channel with Chat Noir to let him notify the police that they could move in, just as she heard a rustling behind her. Magical instincts kicked in and she dropped to the ground. But heard a soft thwack and the man went down beside her. She stared up at the roof and saw her black leather-clad partner grinning like a goof as he snatched his boomeranging silver staff from the air.

“Does that count as one for me?” He asked hopefully.

“Very graceful Chat Noir, did you just throw your stick at his face?” She answered with a smirk.

“I have my talents my Lady. We can’t all be purr-fect.”

He dropped beside her to help pick up guns and secure the men. The clean up after that was quick. The police easily collected the one conscious criminal of the bunch and Ladybug helped to drag the sleeping men to the police cars. They would have a nasty surprise when they woke up. As she talked to the police, she saw Chat return from the corner of her eye. He approached a sweaty looking Asian man, nervously wringing his hands behind the police tape. 

“Monsieur Lu!” Chat called amicably to the startled man. He pulled the man under the tape and towards the police cars. There, he carefully pressed a small canvas bag into the man’s hands and held them in a moment of support. “Don’t worry, Monsieur, I sniffed out every last one.” He swiped at his nose like a preening kid. The man opened the bag and a smile split his face, dispelling the anxiety from his features.

\---

Within a mere half an hour, Ladybug sat in their previously vacated position among the beams of the Eiffel Tower beside a very content Chat Noir. He lay on his back with his belly comically distended, lazily licking his muzzle. A cupcake wrapper sat discarded by his face. He had wasted no time in devouring the cupcake. Ladybug was content to sit beside him and soak up the moonlight. The wind ruffled her hair in the perfectly mild night.

“Purrrrfect” He groaned, drawing the pun out with a real purr. He finally turned onto his side to gaze up at her. 

“Need a dish of milk kitty? 

“Careful, Ladybug, you don’t want to get moon burn.”

“Moonburn?” Ladybug smirked. “Chat, that’s not a thing.”

“Didn’t believe it for even a second did you?” Chat smiled. “Peacock told me that one. I believed her too. For years I believed her. She bought me special moonblock and would put it on my nose and I’d panic if she didn’t bring it.” He laughed, his eyes closed. “A little cruel, really.”

“A little sweet, too,” Ladybug replied.

A question formed on her tongue but she wasn’t quite sure what it was. What did she ask? What could she ask? She sighed, tired of her silence. She considered feigning ignorance about her predecessor but chose not to. This wasn’t a moment for fraud, she decided. Chat Noir wasn’t the type that needed to be tip-toed around, right?

“What happened to her, Chat?” she whispered and held her breath.

His eyes remained closed. Head tilted to catch the moonlight on his fur. 

“She’s gone,” He answered softly. He offered no more and Marinette released her breath. Well, that answered that.

 

\--

 

Marinette landed in her room, as quietly as possible, her eyes immediately catching the discarded history textbook on her desk beside the clock showing the late hour. She groaned. Another one of those nights. She released her identity spell and settled in to her desk. The hours ticked by and her history assignment slowly came to life. A gentle knock sounded at her trap door and her mother pushed it open. 

“Marinette! You should be asleep!” She chastised.

“I know, I know,” Marinette conceded. “I just finished!” She closed her book, not bothering to check her work and dragged herself to flop down on her bed. Sabine pulled herself up into the room as her daughter wiggled under the covers. She pressed a gentle kiss onto Marinette’s forehead, as she was already drifting off into sleep. Exhaustion from the busy day dragging her under. She heard her mom murmur a soft "I love you." As she closed her eyes, she wondered if Chat Noir had made it to bed. Did his mom kiss him goodnight? Maybe it was childish, but she thought he’d like it.

 

\---

 

Adrien stood, surrounded by silence. The quiet beat into his bones with the midday sun and he marveled at it as the world came crashing down around him. The buildings on either side of him were tumbling down beside him. Twin slabs of ceiling sunk through the air in slow motion. The debris cut steadily through the humid air, slipping noiselessly into the empty street. Delayed dust raced towards him, billowing out at his feet to consume him. He stared ahead, unbothered, as he watched. The shattered buildings settled in front of him. A pile of discarded scraps cast carelessly into his path.

He didn’t wait for the dust to return to the earth. 

He took his first step.

And then the next.

And then he was running.

He watched his leather clad hands tear through the rocks

Blood smeared the stone as he pulled.

He saw her face. 

Unmasked and still.

He saw nothing.

His tears fell through the silence, staining dark across the light dust.

“M-mom….?” He gasped and the silence was broken.

 

\--

 

Adrien bolted upright, the covers falling from his tangled legs. He panted, regaining his lost breath. Sweat trickled down the side of his face. He lay back down and waited for morning in the midnight quiet of his darkened room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Why is it that when I have loads of free time I don't write, but when I am super busy I do? Sorry for not being consistent. Hopefully that will get better soon but maybe not until I go back to school.
> 
> Comments and Kudos are always always appreciated :D :D :D
> 
> When I saw I got comments last time I smiled all day.
> 
> ...Sorry I always make the sunshine son suffer....


	7. The Cat and the Noise

Marinette leaned forward eagerly in her chair- for once she was interested in class. Mme Bustier clicked through slide after slide of 1920s French culture and the young designer fervently devoured the images of cloche hats and dress skirt slung low on hips. Her mind raced with her own designs, but she tucked them into the back of her head so as not to miss a minute of the riveting lesson. She could be a good student when the topic interested her, she thought.

 

Time ticked by and just as Marinette was about to break her personal record for longest attention span there was a thud and Adrien was on the ground. Marinette quickly stood, hearing the clatter of falling chairs as her peers did the same. The teacher was soon by Adrien’s side, but he was already sitting up. The boy bent his knees and ducked his head between them. His hands clutching the sides of his head. Marinette cursed herself for paying attention in class. Of course, the one day that she wasn’t obsessively observing her crush was the one day she should have been. She made up her mind to go to his side but as she took her first step, Adrien yelled.

 

“Get under your desks! There’s an Akuma!”

 

At the mention of Paris’ dreaded villians, everyone leapt into action. All questions as to the source of the boy’s information went by the wayside as Marinette and her fellow students dove under their desks. She risked a quick peek out at the boy, determined not to fail him again, and saw Nino dragging the crawling Adrien to safety. As the student’s last limb was securely tucked under his desk the room shuddered and shook, and plaster rained down from the ceiling. Marinette heard a sharp smash and shut her eyes against the shattered glass that showered down on her. An LED light fixture must have fallen on to her desk.

 

After an interminable amount of time, the violence stopped. An unnatural calm and quiet filled the room as her class collectively held their breath. Once a subconsciously agreed upon amount of time passed they slowly emerged from their makeshift shelters. The calm broke.

 

“What was that?!?”

 

“Adrien, How did you-“

 

“Is it going to happen-“

 

“Are my parents safe? How far did-“

 

Everyone spoke over each other; rushing for the one informant they could get their hands on. As Adrien was pulled out from under his desk by the multitude of hands, the questions quieted. He was clearly in pain and he held his hands against his ears despite the pulling of his classmates. His eyes were squeezed tight and his lips pursed, as he seemed to pull all of his being into protecting his ears.

 

“Are you OK, dude?” Nino asked.

 

And just like that Adrien’s face relaxed. His eyes opened and his lip turned into a neutral smile as his hands fell away.

 

“I’m fine,” He said, tightly. “I have sensitive ears. Always have. This must be some kind of sound akuma. I heard her yelling something about taking vengeance and I figured ducking would probably be a good idea. It must’ve been at a higher frequency than normal. Is everyone ok?” Of course this angel would be more worried about everyone else over himself. Marinette tried to get a look at his ears, but it was like Adrien had some sort of sixth sense about this and kept his head strategically turned. As worried as she was, she didn’t have time to fuss. Paris needed her.

 

“I have to go check on my parents,” she blurted out.

 

“Of course,” Mme Bustier nodded. “Class dismissed everyone get home. Follow our akuma safety procedures and be careful.”

 

The class quickly scattered. Students gathered their essential belongings and leapt over debris, heading for the door. Marinette strategically separated herself from Alya in the chaos and ducked into the empty locker room. She took a deep breath, centering herself and pulling at the magic warm in her belly. She felt it cloak and transform her. She opened her eyes to her spotted jumpsuit, her favorite yoyo tied at her waist. Perfect.

 

She ran outside and quickly realized that she had no idea where to go. Paris was quiet again, but she had no idea how long it would last. The damage was wide spread and didn’t seem to be originating from any obvious location. She stopped to think, ignoring the broken buildings in front of her and the extent of the damage quickly inundating her senses. Ignoring the anarchy of the fleeing students and faculty who parted around with the reverence she had come to expect.

 

Which was probably why she leapt nearly ten feet in the air when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She tried to play it off and regain her heroic composure as she turned, but completely failed when she saw the blonde supermodel who had been behind her. Marinette swore that they shared a long moment, staring deeply into each others eyes, but, admittedly, time always seems to slow for her when Adrien was in front of her.

 

She mustered her Ladybug confidence and blustered “What can I do for you, citizen?” She flinched a little at the bravado, which seemed so obviously false to her.

 

“I think I can help you, Ladybug.” Marinette’s mind raced to the obvious solution to this problem- which was to lock Adrien in a soundproof bomb shelter where nothing could hurt him ever again, but she suppressed this thought in deference to hearing him out.

 

“You can’t find the akuma right? I can hear her. My ears are very sensitive,” His eyes shifted, like he was nervous. Marinette had never seen Adrien nervous before, and she reached out a hand to put on his shoulder.

 

“You’re just an innocent bystander. I can’t have you getting hurt. Besides, Chat Noir will be here soon and we always figure things out. You have nothing to fear,” _ever again my lovely, handsome boy,_ she added to herself.

 

Adrien yelped out some sort of squeaky noise and Marinette quickly worried that she had said that last part out loud. She was fairly certain she hadn’t.

 

“Well if Chat Noir is a cat, he probably has even more sensitive ears then me, right? And if that’s the case, if he had any sense at all, he probably locked himself in a soundproof box the moment the Archiwreckt started yelling.”

 

Ladybug hesitated. She knew this was probably true. Chat had shown on occasion that he could, in fact, hear a lot more than she could. And as much as she knew Chat would hate to abandon her, she couldn’t imagine him making it out here if his hearing was even better than Adrien’s. Adrien had been a mess in class. Her brain quickly ran through all her options but they all involved her actually finding the akuma who seemed to be hidden away in one of Paris’ many nooks and crannies.

 

Against her better judgment she relented. “Fine,” She said. “But you absolutely cannot get hurt. No taking on any unnecessary risk. You can only act as my scent hound. But with hearing.” She was rambling a bit, but was pretty proud of not turning into a pile of mush in front of Adrien. Maybe it was the identity magic or the life-threatening situation. No way of knowing.

 

Adrien quickly agreed and grabbed her hand. Ladybug decidedly did not swoon as she jogged to keep up with the running boy whose palm felt baby smooth and perfectly warm against her magically gloved hands. He was very sure of himself as he ran between chunks of fallen building. Marinette blocked out the sounds coming from those buildings. The best way to help the screaming people inside was to cleanse this akuma and make it so this tragedy never happened. She was strong. Strong enough for all of Paris. She’d protect her city. She was so strong she could ignore the blur forming in the corners of her eye. She could ignore the voice whispering in her head that this was the worst it had ever been. She could ignore the thoughts of Paris’ present and Paris’ future destruction tickling at her conscience. She’d focus on this task and the boy running in front of her, undaunted by the tragedy around him.

 

Thanks to her superhuman reflexes and superhuman focus on Adrien, Ladybug easily avoided crashing into him when he came to an abrupt halt. She heard him gasp “uh-oh” as he pulled her behind a chunk of stone. The two looked up over their barricade to find that the concrete in front of them was slowly poking upwards. Twisting as it was pulled towards the sky like putty, the asphalt resolved itself into the shape of a lumbering human. Six lumbering humans, actually, Marinette realized as she stared at the golems. She turned towards Adrien, only to find him already staring up at her. His eyes were filled with admiration, clearly waiting for her to tell him the plan. Marinette took a breath and the strategy quickly came to her. She loved the calm rationalism that came with her powers.

 

“Ok. Where do we need to go?” she asked.

 

“Two blocks that way and into the subway,” He said, pointing towards the slowly advancing figures. “I think she’s underground and I’ll be able to hear her better down there.”

 

Ladybug nodded. She quickly circled her arms around the boy’s slim waist. Her other hand grabbed the yoyo at her waist.

 

“Hold on tight,” she said as she launched them into the air, sailing above the golems from her yoyo string. Just as she was thinking this akuma wouldn’t be so tough she heard a gasp from Adrien, who managed to squeak out a “Wait!” before the world below them shuttered and her yoyo slackened, loosing its purchase on the building above. Ladybug wrapped both arms protectively around the boy as she went tumbling to the ground. They rolled a few times before coming to a stop. Marinette did not give herself even a moment to enjoy Adrien’s head nestled into the crook of her neck and she quickly, yet gently untangled herself from him.

 

“Are you alright??!?” she took stock of his dusty body, patting him down for broken bones. Adrien waved her off, sitting up.

 

“I’m fine,” he coughed.

 

She prepared to tell him it was too dangerous for him to be here but stopped when movement behind him caught her attention. The golems were advancing on them. She could hardly leave him here, and with all the collapsing buildings, he was probably safer with her then out here. She grabbed his hand and ran, leading the way this time as they descended the stairs into the metro.

 

Adrien took a moment and closed his eyes. Ladybug shifted nervously, eyes peeled for trouble, both before and behind them. Adrien was sweating and his breath came out in short pants.

 

“That way” he pointed.

 

“Great,” She said. “I’ll get you somewhere safe and then take this akuma out no problem.” She reached for his hand again.

 

“No.” He pulled away. “Something isn’t quite right. I have to get closer or I don’t think you’ll find her. Plus I can tell you if an earthquake is coming.”

 

“I can handle the earthquakes, but are you sure I can’t find her? Don’t lie to me, Adrien. I just want to keep you safe.”

 

“You know my name?” His eyes were filled with way too much wonder for a kid in his situation.

 

“Well- I-“ Marinette focused on channeling her inner ladybug. “Of course I know your name, you’re the golden boy of Paris. Your face is on every block.”

 

“Oh.” He sounded disappointed. “Right.” He refocused. “I’m not lying, I swear. I wouldn’t put you in danger protecting me unnecessarily.

 

This, Marinette believed. So she took his hand and led him in the direction he’d indicated. She summoned a floating light as she helped him down on to the tracks and the two carefully ran between the rails. Eventually they reached the point when Marinette realized she wouldn’t be able to lead him back before confronting the akuma and she vowed to herself to protect him- forever and always.

 

“Wait,” He said abruptly. “It’s getting quieter.” He pulled her back in the direction they came from. Stalking quietly down the tunnel like a real scent hound on a trail. In time, he came to a stop and bent down. He picked out a seamless trap door under the wooden tracks.

 

“Here,” he declared.

 

He was right, Ladybug realized. She never would have found that.

 

“Okay stay behind me. No unnecessary risk, got it?” She set to work removing the heavy wooden planks. She focused on ending this quickly and, once again today, she failed to pay enough attention to the boy who was the center of her universe. She didn’t catch him as he fell and only noticed when she heard the thud. Adrien was down. She quickly turned but found the sallow boy already pulling himself up from the ground.

 

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” He dismissed but this time Marinette saw his ear and she saw the dark red trail weaving its way down his neck.

 

“You aren’t fine. That’s it. I’ll take you somewhere safe. You can’t stay here.” Alarm bells screamed in her mind. _He pushed himself too far_ she thought. Why couldn’t he admit he was hurting? But these were all excuses because, really, all she was thinking about was how she had already broken her vow to protect him forever and always.

 

“I think we both know it’s too late for that. Paris can’t wait, Ladybug. This is the worst it’s ever been. And I’ll be safer with you if this tunnel collapses.”

 

Marinette let out a deep sigh and nodded. She wouldn’t break her promise again.

 

“Stay behind me. No risk.” She repeated with as much force as she could.

 

She pulled the trap door open and dropped inside. She held her hands up to catch Adrien as he jumped to join her in this subterranean lair. She was sure she’d dream about catching Adrien in her arms later, but she had work to do and a boy to protect.

 

She turned to face yet another underground passage. _Great_ , she thought. Adrien gasped behind her. The rebar holding the tunnel up pulled unnaturally away from the ceiling and piled itself on the floor. It quickly reformed into a group of three metal, stick-figure men. Even better. She barely had time to pull her yoyo off her hip as the metal golems rushed her. They were fast.

 

She wrapped her yoyo around the first one’s “neck” as she ran towards them. She slid between its “legs”, which pulled it down into a face plant. The force of the fall actually caused the monster to fall apart into a pile of rusted steel rods. It seemed that they were fast but not terribly durable. She leapt up to smack the heel of her hand into the second golem’s “chin” as her yoyo retracted. Not hard enough. The golem wacked her in the side. It’s narrow rebar arm dug into her ribs, knocking the wind out of her.

 

The third golem charged at her and she cast her yoyo upwards, wrapping it around a non-animate pipe. She pulled herself up, landing on his shoulders the way that Chat often did. She gained newfound respect for Chat’s feline balance as she and the golem went crashing to the ground. She delivered a final blow and the creature fell apart beneath her.

Ladybug’s heart leapt up in her throat as she turned towards Adrien- and the second golem that had slipped past her. The pounding in her chest ramped up as she saw Adrien was actually fighting the monster off. He had picked up a pipe and was wielding it like an epée, fencing against the golem’s metal arms.

 

She shook off her disbelief and threw her yoyo, pulling the enemy towards her by its neck. As its momentum built, she threw out a fist, and the golem exploded against it. She rushed to Adrien who had braced himself against his knees to catch his breath.

 

He looked up at her with a smile splitting his face and he ran his hands through his sweaty hair.

 

“I fence,” He gasped, his chest heaving from the exercise.

 

“Color me impressed,” she admitted.

 

“Nah,” he said. “I like you in spots.”

 

She playfully punched his arm. He suddenly stiffened.

 

“We should go.” His head cocked, like he heard something. A shudder rippled through the tunnel. The duo took off towards the sound. Her feet pounded against the damp concrete, kicking up dirty fluids that spotted the backs of her legs. Rats scuttled out of her way, chittering in annoyance. The tunnel stretched out before her until she finally spotted the end. Tension held the air and Marinette knew they were close. A high pitched whine started in her head, getting louder and louder with each step she took.

 

Without a word, they bust into a larger opening and skidded to a halt. She quickly sized up the scene. Ten stone golems stood before her and behind the small army was a young woman. Her hair was structured up above her in impressive swirls and dips. She wore all black with mirrored silver rings encircling her arms and legs and torso. The akuma waved a ruler about like a wand.

 

“I am the ARCHIWRECKT,” She yelled. Finally, Marinette was able to hear her. She’d forgotten how much she missed hearing the akumas yell their stupid names. This attack had been a bit too somber for her taste so far. “Soon all of Paris will follow MY DESIGN!”

 

“Well I must say I don’t like what you’ve done with the place,” Marinette quipped. She gestured behind her back to some debris and let out a sigh of relief when she saw motion in her periphery. Adrien was hiding. Marinette set to work taking out the monsters before her. She slid and soared and kicked and punched. With her harder hits the golems turned to rubble beneath her, but it seemed like every time she knocked one down a new one was fashioned in front of her. She missed her partner. She needed a different plan.

 

She landed on top of one golem and focused that light magic inside of her into the palm of her hand. Wishing all her luck into it. In no time, a charm formed and she suppressed a giddy smile at her magical progress. Then she saw what was in her hand and her smile fell away. It was a long roll of drawing paper, like she’d had in her art classes as a kid.

 

“What am I supposed to do with this?!?”

 

She looked around, hoping something would click in her mind. And it did. She unfurled a length of the paper and when a golem swung at her his arm went straight through it. She let his arm anchor the paper and then circled around him, wrapping him up.

 

“Paper beats rock!” She yelled as she ran around the golems, wrapping each of them up like presents. As she ran about, she risked a glance at Adrien’s hiding place and nearly faltered when she saw him peering up over the rock. He had this look on his face that reminded her, oddly enough, of a proud parent. She didn’t have much time to wonder at that, as she wasn’t the only one who’d caught sight of him. The last golem rushed at him. It barreled over the rock he was hiding behind, which turned to dust at the strength of the rock man’s collision.

 

It was like the world slowed down for Marinette. She could have sworn she was yelling “nooo” in slow motion, hand outstretch against the oncoming tragedy, like a character in a movie. The golem ran straight into Adrien, who was sent flying into the wall behind him. His head snapped back against it and he fell, limp, to the ground. Marinette’s yoyo flew straight at the golem’s head, actually shattering it with the force of her angry throw.

 

She roared in anger. Ladybug turned on the Archiwreckt, ignoring her shrill screams about her evil plan. She stalked passed the incapacitated golems. She wouldn’t have been surprised if fumes were coming out of her ears in cartoon anger. Her hands balled into fists as she arrived before the mastermind behind Adrien’s pain. The Archiwreckt’s screeching slowed and faltered until she was blubbering in front of Ladybug’s rage. She snatched the ruler from the woman’s hand and snapped it in half. Even the warm feeling she got when she cleansed the dark moth could not get her to smile.

 

She turned back towards Adrien as the glittering magic rushed past her to restore Paris to its former glory. The woman behind her flickered out of sight as the magic passed over her to return her to the surface. The magic raced before her, enveloping Adrien as it headed down the long tunnel. Ladybug ran to his side as his eyes opened.

 

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” he said like a broken record.

 

“Stop saying your fine,” Marinette held herself back from yelling. She fell to her knees beside him. “Let me see.”

 

She reached for his shirt, ignoring his protests. She fought against the rising sense of wrongdoing she felt for going against his consent. But she just couldn’t let himself say he was fine anymore. She lifted his shirt and her brow furrowed.

 

“My magic should have healed those. Why didn’t they heal?”

 

“Just unlucky I guess,” He shrugged, seemingly unperturbed by the splotchy red skin belted across his stomach. The flesh was quickly darkening, turning to rich shades of blue and green and black. She lifted his shirt higher to see the extent of the damage and as she came across the end of his fresh bruise she encountered the yellowing evidence of an older bruise wrapping around the right side of his ribcage.

 

Adrien quickly snatched his shirt from her grasp and pulled it down. They both blushed, as they were suddenly aware of how close they were, and Ladybug pulled away.

 

“That’s a nasty bruise,” she said.

 

“Well our stone friend hit me pretty hard,” he retorted.

 

“I don’t mean that bruise.” She held his gaze until he looked away.

 

“Basketball practice. It can get pretty rough and all.” He reached up and scratched behind his head in an absentminded way, only to pull his hand away with an “OW.”

 

“Let me see,” She said. He ducked forward, affording her a view of the blood matting his blonde hair at the base of his skull. “Ouch” she hissed in sympathy. “Let’s get you home so you can get patched up. I don’t know why my magic didn’t work on you. Does this happen to other people in Paris and I just don’t know? There was a lot of damage this time… If my magic isn’t healing anymore…”

 

“It’s not you,” Adrien interrupted. She gave him a curious look and he rushed to explain. “I bumped my knee once during an attack. Got a little cut and it never healed. Everyone else healed up with that magic cloud, so it must be me right? You didn’t do anything wrong. I’ll be fine.”

 

Marinette couldn’t help but feel like this was her fault. Like her special civilian connection with Adrien (it wasn’t in her head, right?) was somehow responsible for her magical impotence with him. How terrible that the boy she wanted to protect most in the world was only one she couldn’t.

 

“I’m sorry”

 

“Don’t be.”

 

She reached to help him up. He leaned heavily against her as he made it to his feet. He quickly pulled his weight off her but accepted her offered shoulder and the two made their slow way to the surface.

 

 

 

\--

 

 

Ladybug touched down in front of the massive Agreste mansion. She held Adrien in her arms for probably a bit longer than she needed to before gently setting him on his feet. She felt the heat rising to her face and was reassured to see Adrien’s face reddening as well. Marinette reached up to swing the massive knocker against the door, as they had bypassed the main gate with its security cameras.

 

“Thank you, Ladybug. You can leave now. I’ll be fine. Don’t you have to patrol Paris or something?”

 

“I can at least stay to explain. Things could have ended very badly if I hadn’t had your help. And I failed to keep you safe-“

 

The door opened right then and Ladybug was confronted by an irate Gabriel Agreste. Her idol seemed even larger than life with his fuming anger. His eyes were dark with a storm.

 

“Where were you Adrien?!? I was worried sick. Why can’t you stay out of TROUBLE?!”

 

Before Ladybug could even get a word in, there was a loud smack. Ladybug’s mouth fell open. Gabriel had slapped his son, who’d fallen to the ground. And here she was standing like an invisible audience member. A bystander.

 

“MONSIUER!” Ladybug yelled with all the fury she could muster. Gabriel turned to her, his face blank, like he wasn’t expecting her to speak. Like he’d just noticed her. Adrien turned as well, and, as his hand fell away from his cheek, she saw the thin line of blood dribbling down to his chin. His father’s ring had cut him. And at that Marinette snapped a little.

 

“YOUR SON was of invaluable help in saving Paris this afternoon and you should be OVERWHELMING PROUD of his cleverness, strength, and UNDAUNTED COURAGE in the face of some pretty HORRIFIC scenes. Now your son is HURT, and more than anything he needs your GENTLE understanding and SUPPORT. I came here to apologize for not being able to keep him safe the way I wanted to but now let me say that after seeing Adrien’s INCREDIBLE KINDNESS AND BRAVERY, I vow to PROTECT him ALWAYS AND FOREVER against anything, I mean ANYTHING that would harm him. And I hope YOU will do the same.”

 

Ladybug turned towards Adrien who was once again staring at her with star struck wonder, and said tenderly, “Adrien, you may have concussion and you should get your ribs looked at. Please take it easy and rest up. I couldn’t bear it if you continued to be in pain. Thank you for your help today. It was an honor to fight with you.”

 

And then she fled. She fled before her rage boiled over into something she’d regret. She fled to calm down and think.

 

 

 

\---

 

 

 

And boy, did she think. She practically wore a hole in her carpet as she paced a ring around her carpet. Her thought similarly seems to be wearing a track in her mind.

 

“What’s bothering you sweetheart?”

 

Marinette screeched as she turned towards the voice and found Tikki sitting up in her loft. Her legs folded elegantly as they dangled off the side of the second story of her room.

 

There was pounding below her as her mother thundered up the ladder and flung open the trapdoor.

 

“Marinette?!?” The petite woman gasped, panicked.

 

“Sorry, Mama!” She turned towards where Tikki had been, only to find her loft empty. “I thought I saw a bug. It was nothing.”

 

“Thank goodness,” her mom sighed. “You should get to sleep soon, Sugar. Are you sure you’re all right? It was a rough day for all of us.”

 

“I’m fine, Maman. Thanks.” Her mother nodded and receded below the door.

 

Marinette sighed in relief only to lose her breath again as a voice behind her said, “That was close.”

 

“Tikki!” Marinette turned around and was faced with what looked suspiciously like a plushie floating in front of her. “Tikki?”

 

“I’ve been around a long time, Marinette. I’ve got more than one form.” The creature giggled like it was obvious that if you lived long enough you would take on more than one form. Tikki now had a large head and a cute, tiny body. The ladybug inspiration was apparent in her red and black spots. But she still had those big blue eyes that calmed Marinette down. This was, indeed, Tikki.

 

“So what’s bothering you?” She asked again. Marinette sighed and slumped down into her chaise. Tikki floated over beside her and came to rest on her knee.

 

“I’m worried about Adrien. And I think I lost an idol. Adrien risked his life today for Paris and he was hurt. I think his Dad’s a monster. How could he hit him for that? And while he was hurt, no less? My parents would have scooped me up in a hug and probably never let me go.”

 

“Well not everyone’s parents are the same, that doesn’t mean they don’t love their children,” Tikki said judiciously.

 

“But you should have seen him Tikki. He was so angry, but he pretended it was love. I know my parents get angry sometimes because they love me, but I don’t think that what Gabriel had in him came from a good place. His eyes were so dark. I was scared Tikki. I’m a witch, the most powerful girl in Paris, and he made me feel like a frightened child for a moment. Does Adrien feel like that all the time?”

 

Marinette was working herself up now. “I have to help him. I’ll go to Alya and have her run a story about what a monster Monsieur Agreste is. I’ll get Adrien out of there.”

 

“Marinette,” Tikki murmured sadly. “And then what? What will happen to Adrien? I’m not saying you shouldn’t help him but you can’t do this halfheartedly. Did he say anything to you? You could end up just making things worse for him.”

 

“Then what do I do, Tikki?” Marinette whispered. Desperate, angry tears rolled down her cheeks. She hugged her knees to her chest. All the stress of the day had caught up to her. Seeing Adrien collapse in class. Seeing Paris broken and destroyed. The screaming of the citizens she’d sworn to protect. The silence of the boy she loved when he was in pain. “I have to protect him.”

 

“Then watch him. Talk to him. Be there for him. And protect him when he needs you. When he’s ready.”

 

Marinette nodded. Her eyes drifting shut as the blurred room dimmed before her.

 

Tikki tugged at her jacket “Come on, Marinette. It’s bedtime for you. Even superheroes need their sleep.” She let herself be led up to the warm safety of her bed after a _very_ long day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey my lovely readers! 
> 
> I know, I know, I am a fool. I have not updated this in ages. I'd like to say I'll post again. I'm feeling motivated and know where I'm going. So how about I say I WILL post again soon. Like by next week. WOWZA.
> 
> I love Adrien- does it show?
> 
> Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated.


	8. The Cat in the Foyer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tw for eating disorders and abuse

Adrien looked up towards the sky as he exited the building that had housed his latest photo shoot. A hundred feet up Ladybug gasped and quickly ducked down. Her back pressed against a gargoyle or whatever this guardian statue was meant to portray. She thanked god that probably the only person who could stop her from committing her current crime was herself. Or Chat Noir. But Marinette was fairly certain he didn’t prowl about at this time of day. She shuddered at the thought of her partner catching her stalking a Parisian Idol. It wasn’t even a cool crime.

           

So far, Marinette had followed Adrien from school to piano practice to fencing to Chinese lessons, run back home to eat dinner with her parents and pretend to be in her room for the evening, then caught up with Adrien at a three hour photo shoot. And now it was 11 pm. She wouldn’t be able to stay out much longer without terrifying her parents. All the information she had gleaned was that the boy must have the energy of the energizer bunny because he was way overbooked and that he had very little contact with his father during the day. And by very little she meant absolutely none. Even Marinette had briefly stopped at home to a kiss and grab some sweets from her Mama and Papa before beginning her afternoon of crime.

 

As she watched Adrien climb into his car, she hoped that he was going straight home to collapse into bed for the evening. Then she realized that he hadn’t had a chance to do any of his homework yet and Adrien was always top of the class. Of course, that line of thinking led her to remember that she also hadn’t had the time to do her homework. She grabbed her broom and slowly coasted above the sleek silver car. After confirming that Adrien was finally going home, she turned to head home, but thought better of it.

 

Ladybug drifted down and landed softly on the roof of the Agreste mansion above Adrien’s room. Bouncing on the balls of her feet, she psyched herself up for what she was about to do. Before she could overthink it she grabbed her broom and floated down in front of her idol’s room to lightly knocked on the window.

 

Adrien, standing inside by his desk, jumped and looked towards the door. After a confused moment he looked around his room and noticed the spotted heroine outside his window. With a yelp he rushed to the window to undo the latch.

 

“Ladybug! What are you doing here,” he whispered.

 

“Hello, Adrien. I-” She stopped and sniffed. “What’s that smell?”

 

He ran his hands nervously through his hair. “Um, Camembert,” He said sheepishly. “I don’t normally- I mean it was the only thing I could find.”

 

Ladybug laughed. “Who would’ve thought a young model's favorite food was stinky cheese,” She teased.

 

“Don’t laugh!” He said, exasperated, until he too began laughing.

 

As Ladybug wiped the budding tears from her eyes, she tried to regain her heroic composure. “I just wanted to stop by and thank you again for all your help yesterday. And to make sure you were okay.”

 

“Oh it was no problem at all, Ladybug,” he said lightly. “You really did all the heavy lifting. I’m just glad I could act as your- scent hound? Radar? Whatever I did it was nothing next to your bravery!”

 

“Of course not Adrien! It’s easy to be brave when you have power, but to put yourself on the line with nothing but faith in me- Wow. Paris is safe thanks to you.” She tried to ignore the blush across his cheeks and the matching one blooming across her own. “But is everything okay?”

 

“Oh I’m fine, Ladybug! The bruise is already fading and the headache isn’t anything a little aspirin can’t deal with.”

 

“That’s great but that’s not all that I was referring to.”

 

Adrien looked around the room nervously and then sunk into his desk chair. “I’m sorry you had to see that. My father is a good man. He just worries, you know? And I don’t really help to alleviate that worry when I’m out playing super hero.”

 

“It’s not your fault Adrien. He shouldn’t have reacted that way. You know that, right?”

 

“I know. He’s not normally like that. Promise.” He spoke quietly and wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Its just- my mom died in an accident and I think it just freaks him out when I’m in any danger. I’m lucky he even let’s me leave the house with all the hazards out in Paris right now.”

 

“No child is lucky their parents let them leave the house.”

 

“Ladybug,” He looked at her solemnly. “I am fine. Please stop worrying about me. My father is looking out for me so you don’t need to fret as well.

 

“But-“

 

“Please. Really. I am okay.” He turned away. “As much as I love having Paris’ number one superhero visit me in my bedroom, I have a lot of homework to do still and I was hoping to get to bed  _before_ dawn.”

 

“Oh,” She deflated. “Right. I guess you need your beauty sleep.” He smiled at her.

 

“I’ll be fine Ladybug. Thank you for checking up on me and thank you for everything you do for Paris.”

 

She nodded and hopped up on his windowsill.

 

“Goodnight, Adrien,” She said quietly as she dropped down on her boom.

 

 

\--

 

 

Marinette quietly landed on her balcony, angrily eyeing the bookbag discarded at her desk. Just as she cracked open the first book and touched her pen to her paper, a gentle knock resounded in her room. Her mother carefully lifted the trap door and poked her head into the room.

 

“Marinette?” he mother asked as she lifted herself into the room. “You’re still working? I know high school is important but so is sleep! Get on to bed you’ve done enough.”

 

Marinette hastily shut her notebook before her mother could see the blank page.

 

“Oh is it that late already,” Marinette feigned looking at her watch. “I guess time flies when you’re having fun.” She giggled humorlessly.

 

Her mother stood behind her at the desk, bouncing on her toes and clearly suppressing some excited words.

 

“Umm anything else, Mama?” Marinette asked suspiciously.

 

“Oh, Marinette! I’m not some lame, out of touch mother! Did you think I didn’t know about the competition?”

 

“What competition??”

 

“The Agreste Internship contest!” Seeing Marinette’s blank look, her mother gasped. “Don’t you get those fashion news alerts on your phone? Were you really so focused on your school work that you didn’t hear?”

 

Marinette quickly snatched her phone out of her bag and sure enough there was an alert. [Monsieur Gabriel Agreste Announces Fashion Competition for Aspiring Young Designers] accompanied by a thumbnail of a stern faced Gabriel at a press conference podium with Adrien standing dutifully behind him.

 

“Oh my god when was this announced?”

 

“This evening! The press conference must’ve been during our dinner but I assumed you would’ve seen it when you went upstairs. You didn’t seem like you wanted us to bother you so I thought I’d leave you be”

 

 _That jerk!_ Marinette thought, irrationally, about her stalking subject. _I take my eyes off him for one minute and he meets with his father and holds a press conference._ This thought, however, was quickly squashed by her budding excitement over this impressive competition.

 

“What are the submission details? And the prize? How long until the deadline?” Questions poured out of her as her eyes roamed her desk for old sketches.

 

“Easy Marinette! Right now you need to get to bed. It’s a short deadline. Only three weeks, but that’s what Gabriel says he wants. Designs under pressure. You’ll have to look up more details but I think the prize is an internship. And it’s all in time for Paris Fashion Week.” Marinette started pulling papers out from her the mess of sketchbooks and reference material she kept as her mother continued, “I know how much you’ve always admired Gabriel and this could really be a wonderful opportunity if you’re up for it.”

 

And just like that Marinette felt her joy crumbling to pieces around her. Right. Gabriel Agreste- her idol. Did she really want to work for a jerk like him? Of course it’s not like she knew anything for certain was wrong. Maybe she just caught him on a bad day. Adrien’s face hadn’t even really bruised-just a small cut on his lip. Gah, was she really going to rationalize this? Here she was- 16 years old and at the start of her fashion career- already facing her first moral dilemma. Could a new designer really afford to be so nit picky? And if she got the internship then she could keep a closer eye on Adrien. The more she thought about, the more sure Marinette became that she should enter. Although she wasn’t certain if that surety came from actual logic or an unquenchable, if immoral, desire to participate.

 

“Marinette…?” Her mother’s brow furrowed in concern.

 

“Sorry,” Marinette shook her head, breaking her reverie. “I’m gonna do it.”

 

“Perfect! Let me know what you need. You’ll do great as long as you do your best. But for now- get to bed young lady! I’ll get you up before class tomorrow.”

 

“You’re right.” Marinette groggily pulled herself up to her loft. She’d deal with her homework in the morning. Her eyes closed before she even hit the pillow.

 

 

 

\---

 

 

 

“Argh I didn’t finish my homework,” Marinette’s head slunk down to her desk as Alya pat her reassuringly on the back.

 

“That’s kind of your own fault, girl.”

 

“Ugh has anyone ever told you are terrible at pep talks.”

 

“Well I’d better keep my day job then.” Marinette groaned incoherently in response. “Are you sure you can take on this contest then on top of everything? I feel like you’re always tired lately,” Her friend asked, concerned.

 

“I’ll be fine, Alya. I have to try, you know?”

 

“I know just don’t push yourself too hard. You’ll do great and I'll be there to blog your success every step of the way.”

 

“You’re joining the competition, Marinette?” Nino asked from his desk below.

 

“That’s great! From what I’ve seen, I know you’ll do incredibly well.” Adrien chimed in with his usual angelic charm.

 

“Um uh ye-yes! I guess we will- we will see. Tree. Only three weeks. Fast. Very fast.”

 

“Yeah, I thought so too. Father says he wants ‘only the most committed young designers’,” Adrien mimicked a very stern face. “You’ll do amazing, Marinette.”

 

She couldn’t stop the blush taking over her freckled cheeks. As she tried to muster a coherent response she was saved by Mme Bustier.

 

“Okay class! Who’s ready for some French Revolution? Everyone hand your homework forward and we’ll get started.”

 

Marinette’s sigh of relief quickly turned to a groan of exasperation. She noted, incredulously, that Adrien handed forwards a set of meticulous notes in his neat script.

 

 

\--

 

 

Marinette zipped along the low Parisian skyline, distractedly pushing thoughts or her busy schedule out or her mind. At least she’d been able to finish her homework this afternoon before she went out for her evening patrol. Suddenly, the end of her broom dipped down behind her. As she recovered her balance with a strangled yelp she looked back into two large, glowing green eyes.

 

“Good evening, my lady,” Chat Noir greeted brightly.

 

“Gosh darn it Chat.”

 

“We have _cat_ to stop meeting like this.”

 

“This is an easily solvable problem.”

 

“Hmmmm, I’m not quite as paw-sitive about that.”

 

Ladybug rolled her eyes.

 

“Ruff day?”

 

“Are we moving on to dog puns now?”

 

“I’m not discriminatory.”

 

“I’m just a bit tired, Chat. All this hero-ing is great and all but, is this going to continue forever? I mean there are so many things I want to do, but how am I supposed to accomplish anything when I spend all my time fighting a masked super villain? I’m just tired.”

 

“I can understand that. I got a bit of a busy schedule myself. But you know you’re accomplishing things here right? The people you save matter. Your bravery matters. You’re the most courageous girl I’ve ever met.”

 

“I know, but maybe we should be doing more. More now so that we can stop Hawkmoth for good.” Ladybug sighed. “Keep Paris safe from any attacks.”

 

“Hmmm that’s not a bad idea. And you know I think I found something kind of weird. I was thinking about that last akuma victim.”

 

“The Archiwreckt?”

 

“Yeah. I felt so bad that I wasn’t there to help you out. Darn heightened cat ears. So I went go see Aurelie- the victim.”

 

“You went to see the victim? Do you do that a lot?”

 

“Well it can be hard for them you know- after. There was so much damage this time. It can help to just talk things out. Cats make great therapy animals- you’d be surprised.”

 

“Not that surprised.”

 

“Anyway. I thought it was weird that Aurelie ended up underground you know? She didn’t exactly seem like she belonged down there. Aurelie says that she was down exploring the catacombs on an art history project- she’s an architecture student, go figure. She’s been having a bit of a hard time with school and everything. Architecture can be pretty math heavy and she’s got this difficult bridge project coming up and her boyfriend’s been a getting annoyed with all the time she spends at school-“

 

“Is this on topic, Chat?”

 

“Oops. Anyway. She says that she can’t really remember one specific trigger. She was happy to go on this little trip to the catacombs. They get special access as students. Right- stay on topic Chat. Nothing big happened to her but the next things she knew she was up on the street and she knew she’d done something really bad.”

 

“That is weird. Do people usually remember what their trigger was?” Ladybug her

 

“Always amongst the people you’ve helped.”

 

“We should definitely look into this.” She suppressed a yawn, “Maybe not tonight. Why don’t we meet this weekend to check out the catacombs? Maybe she saw something she shouldn’t have.”

 

“Someone’s got their thinking cat on,” Chat Noir proclaimed as he leapt on top of her head.

 

“Gah!!!” Ladybug’s broom dropped down between the buildings. The two heroes tumbled down to the ground in an unnecessary emergency landing.

 

“Stupid Cat!” She patted off the sidewalk dirt she’d gathered.

 

“You were far to serious my lady. I though I could purrrsuade you to smile.”

 

His goofy feline grin was too hard to resist and she gave in to his aggressive persuasion.

 

“You fight dirty with your kitty-cat eyes,” Ladybug giggled.

 

“A cat’s gotta do what a cat’s gotta-“

 

He was abruptly cut off by screams echoing through Paris, followed by general sounds of chaos.

 

“Sounds like there’s a new akuma that needs swatting. Let’s go, Chat.”

 

The black cat jumped up on her narrow broom behind her and they took off towards a rising cloud of dust.

 

 

\--

 

 

Ladybug was thrown violently against a nearby storefront as Hairy Situation cackled menacingly.

 

“Shall we CUT this out ladybug? Why don’t you just give up?”

 

“There’s no way I’m being defeated by a giant hairball!” She yelled. A black shadow streaked forward in her periphery and she put all of her energy into summoning a charm for herself.

 

Meanwhile, Chat Noir kept their foe busy. In his human form, he dodged the large sets of scissors snipping at him in the air.

 

“I’m not scheduled for a grooming any time soon!” He yelled as he approached the akuma. He reached for Hairy Situation’s magically long hair, only to be blown a way by a suddenly appearing giant hair dryer. As he hung for dear life to a nearby street lamp, he heard his lady yell, ”Got it!”

 

The spotted heroine flung herself, using her yoyo, from behind the akuma. As she landed she pulled out a very intimidating, pink, sparkly water gun. She pumped the trigger until the weak stream of water found it’s way into the hair dryer’s fan. As the electronics short circuited, Hairy Situation was thrown backwards by his sparking creation. Ladybug quickly pounced on the surprised akuma, snatching a hair clip out of his flowing locks. With a quick snap and some radiant magic she had the area and the man in front of her cleansed.

 

“Nice work m’lady!” Chat Noir shouted as he ran towards her.

 

She bumped his fist as he approached. “Well, I guess it wasn’t time for me to curl up and dye just yet.”

 

He batted his eyelashes at her with an adoring look. “You are awesome,” he said bluntly.

 

Ladybug laughed and her partner bent down to help up the latest victim. “Are you alright, monsieur?”

 

The dazed man reached for the proffered hand. He patted his now short-cropped hair as he glanced around confused. His eyes fixed on Chat Noir and recognition crossed his face.

 

“I know you!” the man said triumphantly.

 

“Oh boy- am I famous?” Chat Noir said with a booty wiggle and boyish excitement. Ladybug laughed.

 

“No, no,” the man correct. “As a cat, I met you years ago.

 

“Really?” Chat Noir asked. He thought for a moment.

 

“Yeah, yeah, I was going through a hard time at work and-“

 

“Bradley!” Her partner yelled out joyfully. “How is little Melissa? I saw that you were hired to work on that new France 4 TV series. The hairstyles have been amazing! Especially Paul Maron’s periwig. Really fantastic-“

 

“Wow, you really are something,” Bradley said incredulously. “Melissa is doing well. And honestly I owe all my success to you and Peacock. If you hadn’t stopped me back then, after I gave up hairstyling and left my wife. If I hadn’t come back to my senses, who knows what would have happened. Knowing you two were looking out for me- it really helped me fight to get back to where I am today.” He furrowed his brow in thought. “Although, today wasn’t so great. Everyone on set kept tearing down my ideas and the leading lady completely destroyed the look that I’d spent 3 hours on.”

 

“Um,” Ladybug interjects as Chat Noir grinned. “So you two know each other, then?”

 

“Oh! Yes. This Cat and that Peacock lady helped me out enormously five years ago. Where is Peacock? I owe her a debt of gratitude.”

 

Chat’s grin faltered and fell. “Peacock-“ His voice broke. He took a breath to regain his composure. “Peacock passed away. Four years ago.”

 

“Oh.” The man reacted, confused. Suddenly a tear fell from his eye and he looked surprised. He wiped it away quickly, “I’m sorry.”

 

“Don’t apologize. She’d be glad to see you where you are today.” He turned his head away. “Anyway, I’m glad you’re alright. Do you need any help getting home?”

 

“Oh no I’m alright. You’ve done more than enough.”

 

After some awkward goodbyes and Chat Noir promising to visit the stylist another day, the duo took off on Ladybug’s broom. As she set her now fully feline friend down on a nearby roof top ledge she said, “So, how about Sunday to explore the catacombs?”

 

“Sunday?” Chat Noir asked. “I can’t”

 

“What? Do you have a date, kitty?” Ladybug joked.

 

“Purrhaps, I-,” He started, then faltered. “No. I don’t”.

 

Ladybug stared at him questioningly. “It’s the anniversary of Peacock’s death.” He turned away.

 

“Oh, Chat Noir,” She gasped. “I’m so sorry. Thank you for telling me.” She hoped he could tell how much she meant it.

 

“It’s alright.”

 

“Do you want me to be there? You know I’ll always support you.”

 

He shook his head. “How about Saturday? We can go on our adventure then?”

 

Marinette again pushed aside thoughts of how short she was on time and nodded. “Saturday sounds good. 2 o’clock?”

 

He mewed in agreement and she giggled. Ladybug reached over from her broom towards his spot on the ledge and stroked him gently behind the ears. She bent down and carefully pressed her lips to the glossy fur on the crown of his head.

 

“I’ll see you, Kitty.” And she took off.

 

 

\--

 

 

Adrien stared tiredly at the can of Camembert, which had been licked clean. After a quick survey of his empty room he slid the tin into the trash and gathered up his homework into his bag. The blue light of the not-quite morning lit the way as he slipped through his bedroom door and into the grand foyer. The space may have been grand but there was nothing magnificent about his lonely footsteps echoing through the marble cavern.

 

He sunk into his oversized throne of a chair at the head of the long mahogany table and eyed the small portion of melon laid out by an invisible chef. The mathematics of calorie counting floated in his head as he thought about the fencing practice he had to get through before school and the hours it would be before lunch.

 

Adrien felt like a ghost in his own silent world in this big silent house. Just as that thought of the paranormal crossed his mind he jumped at the white blur gliding into his vision.

 

“Good morning, Father.” He worked to quiet his heart against the unusual visitation.

 

“Hello, Adrien. I told Natalie I would give you your schedule for the day, as I require you this evening. We are doing a photo shoot in promotion of this silly young designer contest.”

 

“And you’ll be there, Father?”

 

The older man finally looked up from his tablet and into his son’s eyes. After a moment of scrutiny he replied. “Yes. Is that a problem for you?”

 

“No, or course not Father.” Adrien flinched. Why did he always over use the word father when he was nervous?

 

“I work long and hard everyday to keep you in this nice house and your bothered by a little photo shoot? Am I not allowed to see my own son work for one measly hour?”

 

Adrien quietly looked down at his plate, unsure of what to say.

 

His father hand suddenly invaded his line of sight as he poked and pinched at the boy’s stomach.

 

“I have also alerted the chefs to start you on your fashion week diet starting tomorrow. It won’t due to have you pigging out like this before a live runway show.” Gabriel eyed the empty breakfast plate disdainfully. “God, you are practically licking the plate clean.”

 

Adrien looked up at this, fighting frustrated tears from his eyes. He knew it wouldn’t help but he couldn’t stop himself from trying. “Father, please. I’ve been exercising a lot lately and my current diet is more than enough to keep me in shape for the show. It’s still weeks away any way. I don’t think-“

 

Gabriel grabbed his son roughly by the chin. “That’s right you don’t think. You don’t think about what your image will do to the brand I worked so hard to create. You don’t think about all the people I hire to make you look good. You only think about yourself. Guzzling down snacks in the middle of the night. And now look at you.” His fingers dug in to the soft flesh of Adrien’s cheeks as he whimpered. “You can act like I’m so mean for taking your health seriously, but why don’t you take a little personal accountability, huh?”

 

And just like that Gabriel’s hand snuck around to grab the small hairs at the back of his son’s neck, forcing his son’s head down between his knees. His other hand came around and Adrien pursed his lips as fingers fought and jabbed at his mouth. It was a futile effort. The invaders forced there way into his mouth and Adrien’s shout was garbled by his gagging.

  

\--

  

Adrien wiped the sweat from his brow as he soaked another paper towel in the powder room sink. He weakly shuffled back to the dining table to clean his sick up from the floor underneath as he mentally tallied the hours, minutes, and seconds until lunch.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow I enjoyed writing another chapter. Shall I promise to write more? Right now, it's like I know the stuff at the end I just have to figure out how to get there. What did you guys think of this chapter? Let me know- comments and Kudos always appreciated! 
> 
> I gotta head out soon so I maybe didn't get to read over this too much to edit. Hopefully there aren't too many typos or distracted sentences.
> 
> Am I too mean too Adrien? Not mean enough? Let me know. This kid's got a rough life.


	9. The Cat in the Catacombs

Marinette banged her head slowly against her desk, groaning loudly. Luckily, her poor forehead was gently cushioned by the expensive fabric neatly folded at her workspace.

 

“I’m so tired,” she groaned.

 

“You got this, Marinette!” Tikki squeaked from her perch on the young designer’s desk. Marinette smiled at her precious little cheerleader. The Goddess of Luck had deigned to spend the whole week cheering her charge on. Her plushie-like form made the perfect mascot to perk up Marinette’s long week. Her first of three long weeks. In her tiny form, Tikki could pop in and out of Marinette’s room- easily hiding from the prying eyes of an intrusive parent or a supportive friend.

 

“What would I do without you,” Marinette said as she nuzzled her dame.

 

“Marinette!” A knock sounded on her trap door, and her mothers head popped up into the room just as Tikki hid behind a framed portrait of Adrien.

 

Marinette tried not to jump as she busied her with putting books in her bag.

 

“You still have time before school starts, silly,” her mom chuckled. “I hope you weren’t up too early to work. I just wanted to let you know that I got a call from Mme. Fourmier.”

 

“Oh my god!” Marinette cried incredulously. “Is it ready all ready?” Her mother’s bright smile was enough of an answer and Marinette hastened shoving her sketchbook into her bag. She surreptitiously left her purse near Tikki so that the Ladybug could slip into it. She wanted her dame to see what she had in store for the competition. “Move, move, move,” Marinette commanded, hopping up and down while she waited to go down her ladder.

 

“Alright, alright! You know you could wait ‘til after school,” Sabine chastised as she followed her daughter into the bakery.

 

“Are you kidding! I have to go see it.” Marinette shoved a croissant into her mouth, rushing to the door. She stopped with her hand poised above the doorknob. Turning around she quickly ran to give her mom a peck on the cheek. “Thank you, Maman!”

 

“Have a good day at school, Marinette.” She waved goodbye to her daughter who was already out the door.

 

\--

 

Marinette bounced up and down in her seat, full of excited energy. Maybe this design competition wouldn’t be quite the killer she was expecting. She’d arrived at class just as the bell was ringing after losing track of time at Mme. Fourmier’s Fabric store. Marinette’s mind was racing with possibilities that she hastily scribbled into her science notebook. She felt her best friend’s eyes boring into her, and shielded her work. Alya’s delighted smile at her friend’s excitement had quickly turned to a frown when she realized Marinette wasn’t going to pay an ounce of attention in class.

 

All too soon, the lunch bell rang and Marinette was jolted out of her reverie.

 

“Soooooooo,” Alya drawled. “What’s that?”

 

“Oh you mean _this_?” Marinette faked surprise at the massive plastic wrapped cylinder leaning against her desk. “Just a little something I picked up.” She set it on her desk and quickly began unwrapping it, eager to show off her prize. The flurry of activity caught the eyes of her classmates and soon she’d captured a crowd. They appropriately oohed and ahhed as she revealed the large bolt of fabric, a gossamer fabric patterned with graphic printed flowers.

 

“That’s gorgeous, Marinette!” Rose exclaimed.

 

“Wicked,” said Juleka.

 

Marinette quickly lost her affected calm and started to gush about her product.

 

“I was really worried about my fabric choices for the competition and my mom had this really cool idea. She studied animation in college and she’s actually really good with computers- photoshop and everything. So she showed me how to do digital illustrations. She even has this cheap little tablet I could use. It took me a while to get the hang of it, but Mom was a great teacher. And even I think it came out alright in the end.” She barely caught her breath, eyeing her friends who were pawing at her fabric. “Anyway, Mom has this friend from university who owns a fabric store that prints patterns for you. They can even do it on a sheer fabric like this. My mom has all these amazing friends from college who work in fashion and animation and sculpture.” Marinette felt a dark storm cloud approaching and looked up to see the bright yellow sweater of The Only Thing That Could Ruin her Day.

 

“Wow, Marinette,” Chloe cooed over the coffee clutched in her fake-nail taloned hands. “I guess that the three week deadline in no biggie when you can use cheap fabrics like this.”

 

“It’s Georgette, Chloe, not tulle.” Marinette said scathingly. “And not everything has to be expensive to be cool. My mom said-“ But Marinette forgot what her mom, because she was frozen in horror as Chloe casually tipped her entire cup of coffee right on to the center of her bolt of fabric.

 

“Oops,” the monster said simply.

 

Marinette didn’t move. She stared down at the dark streak seeping layer by layer through the middle of the fabric she had spent her entire allowance on. Her face remained a mask of horror as yells erupted around her.

 

“Chloe, you are a super psycho! How could you do that? This is soo going on the school blog.”

 

“I’m getting the teacher!”

 

“Ahh, cold water and vinegar!” Blurted a quiet voice below her- always the son of a fashion designer.

 

The overwhelming concern of her classmates faded into the distance of her consciousness as the rage bubbled up inside her. Her slack jaw quickly tightened, clenching as the she felt the veins popping in her forehead. She stewed in her rage, her hands pressing into fists at her side. She bolted up out of her seat.

 

“Chloe!” Marinette yelled. Louder then she ever had before or ever felt the need to. Then she sputtered. “How could- Why did- Who-Who do you think????” Words failed her as her rage spent itself on volume and the pounding of her fists against the desk. The yelling exhausted her and as the anger ebbed she wilted. Her head hung limply towards the floor and frustrated tears welled up in her eyes. She snatched the fabric off her desk along with her purse and backpack and ran out of the classroom. The door slammed loudly behind her into the now silent classroom.

 

\--

 

And as Marinette ran blindly for the safety of her bakery, her class turned searing eyes on Chloe. Alya stepped up to the bully. She gave a sharp intake of breath and opened her mouth. But just like her friend she wilted and shook her head, then turned to leave to follow her victim.

 

Chloe held her chin high, avoiding the gazes of her classmates.

 

“What?” she started angrily. “You think-“

 

But she quieted as Adrien stood up and put his hand on her shoulders. “Let’s get lunch, Chloe.” He said tiredly and steered his confused childhood friend towards the door. As he stepped into the hallway he turned back towards a protesting Nino and gave him a reassuring wink.

 

“That idiot,” Nino muttered. “He never gets lunch with me.”

 

\--

 

“Leave me alone!” Marinette yelled down at her dotting mother. She paced her room- the picture of teenage rebellion. She threw her bag at the chaise, only to gasp at the pained yelp she got in response.

 

“Owww”

 

“Oh, Tikki, I’m so sorry.” She groveled as she threw herself onto the chaise to coddle her friend.

 

“I just can’t stand that girl. She’s really gone to far this time, Tikki, and I can’t just let it go. She thinks she can get away with everything. It’s like she doesn’t even care! About anything! How can she treat people the way she does? How can she treat me the way she did? I can’t stand her.”

 

“I know, Marinette.” Tikki sympathized. “She’s a brat.”

 

“Someone needs to take her down a peg.” Marinette murmured. Her eye cause the ruined bolt of fabric, and though she tried to look away from it, she felt herself drawn towards the disaster. She gently unraveled it. The plastic had been abandoned at school. For all the good it had done. A pained breath escaped her as she lightly traced her fingers over the coffee scar. “Maybe I can fix it.” Her eyes widened and she turned towards Tikki. “Maybe I can fix it!” she repeated.

 

“Marinette…” Tiki said cautiously.

 

“I know I can! I mean I can fix building after an earthquake, what’s a little bolt of fabric?” Marinette excitedly ran her hands over the damaged sections. The magic bubbled in her chest. She closed her eyes and felt it. The lightness. The lightness welled up but, like a punch to her gut, the brilliance soured. The lightness wrapped around her heart, so cold, she gasped.

 

“Marinette!” Tikki yelled. “You can’t!”

 

“What’s happening?” Marinette panted. She fought the frosty radiance down as it pervaded through her body, reaching eagerly towards her finger tips. She quickly withdrew her fingers from the fabric and the magic sparked between from her forefinger, like an electric charge missing the leap from her body to the object of desire. Marinette crouched besides her desk, catching her breath. The magic flowed innocently out of her as her mind raced to calm. She felt warm pressure engulf her and turned into the protective embrace of her human formed dame. They stayed like that for a moment and the gentle rhythm of Tikki’s breaths lulled Marinette to tranquility. She closed her eyes, relaxing into Tikki’s shoulder.

 

“You mustn’t ever do that, Marinette. You can’t use your magic like that. When you start tipping the scales towards yourself you never know what else is going to slide. And I don’t want to see you slide.”

 

“What do you mean, Tikki? I thought that’s what my magic was all about.”

 

“Of course it isn’t.”

 

Marinette leaned back, out of the arms of her goddess and against her desk. The sheer fabric lightly dripped off the tabletop, brushing her shoulder.

 

Tikki leaned back with her and sighed. “I think you know at this point that there is good luck and bad luck in the world.” Marinette nodded. “Every person is container for luck and there is as much individuality between people’s luck as there is between people’s personalities and it changes day to day.”

 

“But my magic is different from just luck, isn’t it?” Marinette asked.

 

“Magic is the ability to manifest that good luck into something. Peacock could turn it into wind. Hawkmoth can use it to grant powers to others. And the Ladybug is the most powerful witch of all. Not only can you manifest your luck into anything at all, you can also generate luck. Your magic creates. It creates your lucky charms and it creates itself.”

 

Marinette pushed herself up and away from the desk, resuming her pacing track across her bedroom floor. “So why can’t I use it to fix the cloth? My magic helps me all the time! It keeps me from falling on my face from my own clumsiness-“

 

“It’s all about the choices you make Marinette. Those little things are different. This is different. If you use this your powers in an effort to win this competition you are using your luck to change your fate. You’re messing with the balance of destiny and that’s an evil thing to do. It’s what Hawkmoth does.” Tikki said sagely from her spot sitting cross-legged on the floor.

 

“But how is any of this helping Hawkmoth? He’s just an bad man with bad magic who wants to hurt people,” Marinette huffed.

 

“Didn’t Chat tell you that that wasn’t true? It’s not that your magic is good and his is evil. The evil is in the choices he makes. And you don’t want to follow in his footsteps.

 

“He’s hoarding luck,” she continued. “Hawkmoth can only use the luck he has on any given day. His magic is limited. But he is stealing good luck from innocent people. From his akumas and their victims. He preys on people in weak moments. He grants them powers in exchange for their good fortune and they don’t know what they are getting into. Of course, his victims can rebuild their luck once their deal is broken and the akuma is cleansed. Their luck will bubble back up in them as time goes on- but Hawkmoth keeps the luck he’s claimed. And he’s building up a massive amount.”

 

“And he can just do that?” Marinette shook her head. “Why aren’t their rules to this magic stuff?”

 

“The magic itself isn’t evil just like luck isn’t evil. It’s a changing of the tides. But a person can be evil.” Tikki responded, darkly. “A person can be corrupted and the more luck he steals the more the wickedness builds inside him. There may not be rules but there are consequences. And his soul is paying a price. That first time that a witch or wizard makes that choice- the choice to alter the fates in their own favor- they pay a toll. A toll that brings them to the other side. And after that choice is made their soul will become more and more tainted with every bad choice they make.”

 

Marinette stopped. Her hands balled up into familiar fists. “So it just snowball downhill then? We can’t stop him? He’ll get more evil and he’ll steal more luck and he’ll get more evil and it will just never end? That’s not fair. How can he let this happen to himself?”

 

“He can’t. A single human can’t keep all that wickedness inside him- he has to be letting it out. But it will get worse and worse as his fortune horde grows. If you stop him you can stop that evil from sprouting in him. But this all started from one choice. One evil choice. He had that inside him from the beginning.”

 

“Then so did I, Tikki.” Marinette head hung low and her frustrated tears returned. “I wanted to change the tides. Does that make me evil?” Gentle hands held her shoulders.

 

“It’s the decisions you make, Marinette. Witches have more power than anybody but they have that seed of doubt in them that everyone has. You have to be stronger than anyone to never give in to that seed of doubt. And I chose you because I knew you could.”

 

“I’m just a regular girl, Tikki. I’m not special.” The tension eased out of her shoulders as she let out a long breath.

 

“Of course you’re special, Marinette. You’re Miraculous.”

 

\--

 

 

Marinette didn’t return to school that afternoon and her mother didn’t make her. Sabine had simply given her daughter a hug and a kiss on the crown of her forehead when Marinette had finally calmed down enough to come down to the bakery.

 

Marinette had spent the rest of the day serving patrons and was grateful for the busywork to take her mind off the new information buzzing around her head. The time slipped away from her as she rushed from taking bread out of the oven to ringing up customers to washing dishes. Just as she was tackling a particularly tough raspberry streak, she heard an angelic voice call “excuse me?” from the front. She yelped and dropped her plate. She sighed in relief as it landed plushly on a wet sponge in the sink. She took a deep collecting breath before jerkily making her way out of the kitchen to the counter.

 

“Adrien!” She said, surprised. “I guess school’s out now, huh?” She glanced at the clock to confirm her suspicion.

 

“Sure is,” he responded with a smile. “I’m sorry you couldn’t make it back to class. I just wanted to come and apologize on behalf of Chloe. What she did was inexcusable, but-“ he faltered. “Well I guess that’s all. It’s inexcusable and I won’t try to justify it. I just hope you can give her another chance. I know it isn’t fair to ask that of you, but…” he fizzled out.

 

Marinette struggled to keep the touched expression off her face. She knew Adrien wasn’t here for self gratification. In fact, he seemed to expect her to get mad at him and tell him to buzz off.

 

“Thank you, Adrien. But you know it isn’t your job to apologize for Chloe, right?” It was, perhaps, her lingering anger towards Chloe that was keeping Marinette from falling to pieces in front of this kind boy, and she sure wasn’t going to let got of it. “If she wants my forgiveness she should come here herself.”

 

“I know. And I wish she would- she can just be so stubborn sometimes.”

 

“Sometimes?”

 

“Okay a lot of the time”

 

Marinette quirked an eyebrow at home

 

“Okay pretty much all the time. And it was terrible of her to ruin your fabric like that. I don’t want you to worry at all about the cost of getting a new bolt. Or I can talk to some of the people in our laundering department about getting it dry cleaned-“

 

Marinette was flabbergasted, “No, no, Adrien, you don’t need to worry about that. What happened happened, and I’m just going to have to work harder to overcome it but I don’t need to take an easy way out. I’ve already got some new ideas to get around it and maybe the challenge will inspire me.”

 

Adrien stared at her open-mouthed and Marinette wondered if she had something on her face. Maybe she’d gotten flour in her hair?

 

“Sorry,” he recovered. “That’s just such a great outlook. You’re amazing.”

 

Alarm bells started sounding in Marinette’s head as she quickly felt herself loosing grasp of her cool.

 

“Uh, pastry?” She stammered in response to his compliment. “I mean can I get you something?”

 

“Oh.” Adrien just seemed to notice the display of sumptuous goods in the case in front of him. “Oh boy. Do you take cash?”

 

“Oh don’t worry, it’s on the house. Friends discount.” She blushed at her boldness and ran around behind the counter while he scanned from donuts to cakes to croissants.

 

Adrien pulled out his wallet anyway. “One éclair, please.” He hesitated. “And a gougère, please.” He sighed, giving up. “And a mille-feuille.”

 

Marinette smiled. “In a box?”

 

“Yes, please. A small one. Or maybe I could eat them here?” he mused.

 

“Of course!” She piled his order on a plate and tried not to wonder at the incongruous image of this slender boy with his pyramid of pastries. He slid a few euros across the display case and Marinette lacked the courage to argue.

 

She brought his plate around to a table and hesitated as he sat down with his prize.

 

“Could you sit with me?” He asked. “Nothing quite as sad as a eating sweets alone.”

 

Marinette yelped, “Yes!” and sat down before she could lose her cool. Adrien dug in on his mille-feuille, his least portable order.

 

“I’m sorry, again, for Chloe’s behavior. Oh my god this is so good. What she did was terrible and- It’s like its melting in my mouth- I understand if you can’t forgive her.”

 

“Like I said, this isn’t on you Adrien, and I don’t know why you’d go so far to defend her.”

 

He stared dejectedly down at his almost finished cake.

 

“I just don’t want to give up on her. And I know that it shouldn’t be on you to forgive her. It’s just that I think there is a good place in her. She’s twisted it and used it to justify the nasty things she’s done, but I think she spilt that coffee today because in her messed up way she thought she was protecting me."

 

Marinette gaped. “How???”

 

“You have a lovely relationship with your mother, Marinette.” Adrien gave a thin-lipped smile. “And you should never lose that. It’s wonderful that she is so involved with your designs. But I think it bothered Chloe because her own mother left her. And maybe she could have ignored that, but this weekend is the anniversary of when I lost my own mother and in her poorly thought out way Chloe was trying to change the conversation. And she certainly managed to.”

 

“Oh, Adrien.” Marinette felt awful. How had she not known this about her Adrien? Here he was putting himself out there to apologize for Chloe when Marinette knew that if she was days away from the anniversary of a parent’s death she would just want to hide in a closet and cry. “I am so sorry.”

 

“It’s not your fault, Marinette.” He waved dismissively. “And you should certainly never feel bad about the fact that your mother loves you. Mine did, too, and I won’t ever forget that.

 

“But Chloe- well, her mother just up and left her when she was little. Truthfully she wasn’t a very nice woman. I think she just truly didn’t love her own daughter. So Chloe feels like if no one is going to love her that’s fine, but she still wants people to think of her, even if that means they think of how much they hate her. She thinks she’s strong enough to live like that because she was strong enough to grow up without her mom and sometimes she tries to be strong for the both of us, because I can be a bit of a push over. The kind of strength she wants isn’t right but I think that maybe I can help her change. Maybe that place she acts from doesn’t have to be as bad as she makes it. She has all this anger in her, but she cares enough to fight for me. That has to mean something, doesn’t it?”

 

“I don’t know, Adrien. Everyone has bad thoughts inside of themselves. And maybe she’s unlucky enough to have more terrible memories and emotions then others but her actions still matter. She chose to do a bad thing and that makes her a bad person.”

 

Adrien gaped at her. Maybe it was because Marinette was stringing more coherent words together than Adrien had ever heard. He shook the surprise from his face and smiled sadly. “You’re right of course. Her choices matter. But don’t you think she can be redeemed? Good and evil isn’t set in stone.”

 

Marinette eyed him dubiously. “I suppose,”

 

Adrien chuckled at her expression. “I know, I know. Chloe’s done a lot of inexcusable things and it wouldn’t be right to sit here and say she had a sad life so it’s okay. But that also doesn’t mean I can just write her off when I’m right here. She has lot of work to do sure. But I won’t stop hoping for redemption. She’s just-“ Adrien’s cell phone buzzed.

 

“Shoot,” he said, looking at his phone. “They’ve noticed I’m gone.” He stared down at the rest of his cake. “Don’t judge me for this.” Marinette cocked her head and then Adrien shoveled the rest of his mille-feuille into his pretty model mouth. She couldn’t suppress her giggles.

 

“Whaght?” He asked his mouth full and a forkful of cake poised at his lips.

 

“Nothing, nothing, no problem” she laughed, desperately willing herself to stop. Adrien broke into a wide chocolatey grin, but quickly covered his mouth with his hand.

 

“Sorry,” he said demurely.

 

As he polished off the rest of his cake, Marinette retreated to the counter and busied herself setting up a small box.

 

“Thank you,” Adrien said as she put his extra sweets in the box. “I’m sorry to cut this short. You’re a really smart girl, Marinette.”

 

She blushed and nearly dropped his éclair. He took his books out of his shoulder bag, put the box in the bottom and then stacked his books on top. He winked at her “Our little secret, ok?”

 

“Yep,” she squeaked.

 

“I’ll see you at school, Monday. Who knows, maybe Chloe will apologize.”

 

Marinette could only bring herself to nod and offer a tiny wave and Adrien rushed for the door. He waved as he left and jogged out to the street, seemingly in a hurry. Meanwhile, Adrien was counting his very few lucky stars that none of his father’s people had caught him in a patisserie.

 

\--

 

Ladybug touched down on a nearby roof besides an old set of stairs leading down down down into the unknown. Unfortunately, the mysterious atmosphere was somewhat offset by the lines of tourists crowding the entrance. She mumbled a curse just as four padded feet landed gently on her shoulders.

 

“Some adventure, huh? How are we supposed to conduct any sort of investigation with so many people around?” She asked.

 

“Luckily for you my Lady, you’ve been grace with an insomniac cat. I did some research last night and discovered a mildly illegal group of cataphiles who were more than willing to help a feline out. I think I got our ticket.”

 

Ladybug nodded assent and followed Chat Noir as he bounded off her shoulders and led her on a roundabout rooftop stroll through Paris. Eventually, he caught wind of some scent.

 

“Here,” he mewed, bouncing off ledges as he made his way to the ground a dingy alley.

 

“Oh what a lovely adventure you’ve lead me on Chat Noir,” Ladybug drawled as she lifted her sticky feet from a puddle of god-knows-what.

 

“It’s about to get even lovelier my dear.” In a flash of green light his human form appeared, lifting a heavy manhole cover next to a dumpster. Ladybug peered into the abyss and was terrified to see a series of metal rungs lining the meter wide hole in the ground. The rungs descended into total darkness.

 

“Are you sure about this?” She asked.

 

“No.”

 

Ladybug sighed and summoned a floating red light.

 

“Ladies first,” Chat Noir said sweetly.

 

“What a gentleman.” She poised her self over the hole and thought. “I wonder…” she grabbed her broom and held it by the end of the handle. She swung it directly above her head and let the magic well within her. Slowly, her feet lifted off the ground as she dangled from her vertical broom. She let the magic carry her above the abyss and began her descent.

 

“Not exactly the most graceful way to do it,” Chat Noir chuckled at her silly position. As the end of her broom cleared ground level she saw a flash of green light reflect of the slimy walls and a gentle shake as her broom adjusted to new weight. She looked up to find her kitty folded over the bristles of her broom, desperately clinging to the straw.

 

“I suppose graceful is your forte then, Chat.”

 

“Shush, I’m concentrating.” His little pink tongue peeked out below his black furred lips and his eyes were squinted in concentration. “Cats only have nine lives you know.”

 

Ladybug forced herself to stare up at that little pink tongue rather than look down into the black below. An eternity went by until her feet suddenly bumped the ground and she let out a surprised yelp.

 

Chat Noir leapt off the broom above her to land on her shoulders and give her a reassuring rub to her cheek. The red light bobbed down beside her and the duo surveyed their surroundings.

 

“Ok so, if my sixth sense is correct, we are a couple blocks from were Aurelie said she lost consciousness.

 

Chat Noir marched along in front of a hunched Ladybug as she made her way through the short passage way. She marveled at tiny drawing etched into the narrow walls by medieval hands. Tiny stars, compasses, and flowers passed her are they made their way through the sloping tunnel. They passed through ancient wrought iron gates and stepped over drainage ditches. Wet sand clung to her covered feet and she quickly gave up on scraping it off.

 

At some point the carvings around them began to change and the partners slowed as they surveyed the sketches. The hall was lined with vertical panels, each depicted an animal, an enscribed circles, and scenes of violence. An intricate turtle marked the top of the nearest panel. Its head was pointed downward gently kissing the forehead of a man. The scene flowed downward as it depicted the man with a soft shell on his back and a river flowing around his feet. She floated her light downwards and gasped at the image of the man standing with a staff in hand before a massive wave. The dead lay at his feet. Below the violence was a circle with glyphs carefully carved around the edges that spiraled towards the center. She passed similar panels for a fox and a bee. She tried not to stand too long in front of the image of a peacock gracing a man with a massive fan, least she pique Chat Noir’s interest.

 

She stared at a ladybug blessing a polka-dotted woman with what appeared to be an ancient yoyo. Here eyes skipped over the scene of violence to the circle below. She stared at it, committing it to memory.

 

“Purrhaps,” Chat broke the reverent silence. “We should take some pictures.” It was the obvious choice and Marinette shook the anachronistic feeling that gripped her as she pulled a cellphone from her pocket and began snapping pictures.

 

Eventually, the animal panels ended and new panels began, showing other scenes. One showed a carefully carved man surrounded by a glow of light. Below him was the image of his outline, beady eyes peeking out. The next panel depicted a person digging a very large hole, and the next a woman flying on a broom. She took pictures of panel after panel, hoping to sort through them in the comfort of anywhere other than the catacombs of Paris.

 

“These must be instructions for spells,” she mused. Each panel was accompanied by its own glyph. “But I’ve been able to fly on a broom since day one. What is the circle for?”

 

“I suppose that some spells come more easily to certain witches then to others. Maybe you were made to fly on a broom. Very witchy of you.”

 

Ladybug hummed in thought, but stopped as she came across a panel that caught her eye. It began with an image of a little girl surrounded by shapeless, malevolent-feeling figures. The girl was crying, a tiny tear chipped into the stone below her eye. As the scenes progressed downward, the shadowed figures overtook the little girls image. The Ladybug witch appeared on the scene and pulled a hand from the malignant swarm. The small girl reappeared as a black cat, the terrible shadow just inches from overtaking her again.

 

Chat Noir’s eyes were filled with melancholy as he examined the panel and the glyphed circle below it.

 

“Is that,” Ladybug hesitated. “How to make a black cat?”

 

“Its an ancient magic,” Chat Noir wouldn’t look at her. “It uses more bad luck then good. Please don’t ever use it. It has some side effects.”

 

“For the Cat or the Ladybug?”

 

“Both, I suppose,” He didn’t seem too keen on elaborating. “Sometime you have to wonder what effect that sort of magic has on destiny. When witches meddle too much, fate has a way of intervening to set everything on course again.”

 

That explained absolutely nothing for Ladybug and she was determined to get some straight answers.

 

“Was there a ladybug witch before me, then? Or can any witch do it?”

 

Chat Noir finally looked at her. “Tikki did it for me. Only Ladybug’s have such direct control over Luck like that but I’ve only ever heard of black cats being created by Tikki herself. I’m the only one in the world right now. She’s not happy to make us.”

 

“Why is that?”

 

“It’s never a good thing to call the attention of bad luck.”

 

Ladybug noticed the Panel besides the black cat manufacturing instructions. This one showed the ladybug and the little girl holding hands. A light burst between them and the shadows withdrew their baleful tendrils from the girl. The ladybug and the cat switched places in the next scene.

 

“Is this the Pact then? The Pact that can ward off the bad luck?” she asked.

 

“Yes.” he said simply.

 

“Chat, Please.” She held his gaze until she turned away.

 

“The Pact shares everything between a witch and cat. It shares what’s happening to us, our feelings, and our Luck.”

 

“I’ve got plenty of Luck to spare.”

 

“Maybe, but…” he trailed, searching for an answer she would accept. “I’m not ready for a Pact right now. It’s not a good time.” He closed his eyes, his voice turned unsteady. “And maybe- maybe there will be a moment when- a moment when you need that little- little bit of luck I’ve taken from you and you wouldn’t have it. You wouldn’t have it. And I couldn’t live with knowing I put that bad luck in your life when I can live with it as things are now.”

 

“Chat,” she implored as she crouched down and reached a hand towards him. He flinched from her touch and she withdrew. “May I hug you?” She asked as politely as possible. Her kitty turned towards her, hesitated a moment, and she was sure he’d say no.

 

“It wasn’t your fault you know,” she whispered. He nodded and leapt into her outstretched arms. She cradled his light body against her chest, allowing him to bury his face in the nook of her collarbone. She pretended the lurching of his fragile body was simply a purr and pet his back gently, feeling each crevice of his spine as his delicate bones pressed into her palm. She lowered herself from her crouch to sit cross-legged. She continues to stroke him as the minutes slipped by and the quiet of the tunnel pressed in on their lonesome scene. She wouldn’t press him, but she’d figure out a way to make a Pact with him. His bad luck was too much to bear.

 

“Peacock would have never regretted your Pact. I didn’t even know her but I can guarantee that much.”

 

Chat Noir nodded into her shoulder. “It’s easier to blame myself.”

 

“You know, Chat, I think you’re the only person I know who’d find it easier to blame himself than to blame someone else.”

 

“It’s not as easy to pin things on someone else as everyone thinks.” He curled himself in her lap. “Because then you have to do something about it.”

 

“Do something?” Ladybug asked, thinking dark thoughts.

 

“You have to show them. They have to see what they’ve done wrong and change, but it’s not so easy to change a person. And it’s been so much easier to think that Hawkmoth wasn’t my problem.” Ladybug tried not to start at the admission that Hawkmoth was responsible for the death of her predecessor.

 

“You talk like you want to help him, not hurt him, Chat.”

 

“What good would hurting him do?” Chat asked innocently.

 

Ladybug thought about it. “None I suppose. No good at all. But it would stop an evil. He can’t be redeemed, Chat Noir. It’s too late for that.”

 

“Good and evil isn’t so clear cut and as long as I’m here, how can I stop trying?”

 

“I don’t know. I was talking to Tikki, and it seems like he’s made his decision.”

 

“Tikki gives up too easily,” he said to Ladybug’s surprise. “She blames herself for all the bad luck that people have to face and I think it really eats away at her.

 

“Listen,” he continued. “It’s not easy for me to sit here and defend him. His choices can’t be taken back and they’ve taken so much from me. I just don’t want him to take any more from me. If this choice is all I got I want to make it a good one.”

 

Ladybug didn’t know what to say to that. How could she convey what his outlook meant to her? Even if she disagreed with him she couldn’t find a word he’d said to disagree with.

 

“You amazing,” she said.

 

“Aw shucks, my lady, you’ll make a cat blush.” She opened her mouth to respond but a deep rumble rolled through the tunnel around them, reverberating the walls with a low groan.

“What was that?” Chat perked up. His ears swiveled around and he sniffed the air deeply. “We have to get out of here,” he concluded, springing to his feet. “Now!”

 

He took off at a run and Ladybug quickly overtook him. The walls started to shake around her, sand dusting her black hair.

 

Suddenly, Chat Noir stopped. She halted beside him, deferring to his keen senses.

 

“Too late,” he cried searching around them desperately. Marinette stared ahead as rocks tumbled down in the darkness. A wave of falling stone was approaching them, cutting off their way out. “Here!” He led her two meters backwards and just as she stepped beside him a rock fell right behind her back, barely grazing her. She looked up to find a large sturdy slab of rock supporting the ceiling above her and the cascade of the cave in continued on just past this beam. She hopped and leapt out of the way as rocks tumbled in around her but eventually the jumble of stones stabilized.

 

They were trapped. Her tiny red light ominously illuminated the small crevice between the chaos that they had managed to wedge themselves into.

 

“Oh, God.” Chat Noir was breathing fast. “We’re trapped. We gotta get out. I can’t- I can’t hear anything. What are we going to do?” His eyes locked on her as his panicked pants continued to increase. “Oh god, Ladybug! You’re trapped here. I should’ve sensed this. I should’ve gotten you out. Now you’re going to die here.” He was pacing, his pink tongue lolling out of his mouth as his belly hitched with each inhale.

 

“Chat Noir,” Ladybug said calmly. “I need you to take deep breaths. Why don’t you count with me. Five seconds in. Five Seconds out. Okay? One. Two. Three. Four. Five. There we go. Three. Four. Five.”

 

Chat Noir counted with her, eventually slowing and calming down. Then he just started quietly crying. Human tears flattening his feline fur. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

 

“You’re claustrophobic?”

 

“I didn’t know. I guess. Bad memories.”

 

“Let me think. I’ll get us out of here so don’t worry.” She looked around waiting for something luck to click in her mind as she examined each crevice. She found nothing but endeavored to search harder.

 

“I can’t do this,” Chat Noir shook his head. “Get as far back as you can my lady, okay?”

 

“Wait.”

 

“Cataclysm.” Chat Noir whispered and once again those black bubble surrounding him. This time, consuming his small feline body. Ladybug pressed herself to the far side of their space, avoiding the inky aura. Chat Noir leapt up on to a rock pressing his nose against one of highest stones. The stone turned to dust. He continued at it, turning everything before him to dust. Rocks shifted and tumbled at him, but they, too, returned to dust as they collided with his bubbling veil. Ladybug stayed as close to him as possible without touching him and slowly they made their way to surface. She followed him in silence, letting him concentrate on his unpleasant pathway.

 

Eventually, they broke through into the afternoon sunlight. Chat Noir let his power fade away while Ladybug peered around. They emerged from a gaping wound in the grassy ground of an empty park. She’d expected to find herself in a pool of rubble but instead she faced a smooth green lawn with carefully bordered wildflowers and park benches.

 

“Well, that wasn’t natural,” she pointed out, just as a splotch of white goo whacked her kitty in the face. She turned to the sky at the caw of a pigeon.

 

“Um, they say it’s good luck to be pooped on by a bird?” she offered to her unimpressed friend.

 

“They only say that to make you feel better about the fact that you were just pooped on by a bird.” He rubbed his face in the grass and only succeeded in ingraining the mess deeper in his fur. She watched him solemnly, trying not to laugh.

 

“You saved us,” she finally said.

 

“Honestly, I don’t think I could’ve stayed in their another second.”

 

“What’s that crazy power though? Why don’t you use it all the time? Looks like it could really come in handy.”

 

“Cataclysm?” He asked. “It’s the power of a Black Cat. It’s best not to use it much and I really didn’t want to use it today.”

 

“Why’s that?”

 

“Well it draws Bad Luck to you and gives it to whatever you touch. But, like I said before, it’s never a good idea to catch the attention of Bad Luck. I get more than most normally, but Cataclysm calls it all to me. And I already have some bad luck coming my way this weekend.” He sat down then immediately hopped back up in the air with a yowl. “Ouch! Fire Ants! Oh God!” He ran in circles shaking his but in the air to rid himself of the nasty invaders.

 

It was suddenly less funny to Ladybug. “Are you going to be alright, Chat Noir? A grand piano's not going to fall on your head or something, is it?”

 

“Oh don’t worry. It’s just part of being a black cat. It would’ve been worse to be trapped down there for an eternity.”

 

“I could’ve found a way out though, you didn’t have to-“

 

“It was my fault really ladybug, I should’ve sensed the cave-in coming and I was the one freaking out down there.”

 

“You know, not everything is always your fault.”

 

His feline lips tightened into his form of a grim smile. “I know my Lady. Thank you.” She stared at him skeptically.

 

“What was that cave-in though? I think I felt magic involved, did you?” she asked.

 

“I think so too, but it was something ancient. Maybe we can do some more exploring of other areas.”

 

“Maybe next weekend? We can plan on patrol.”

 

Chat thought for a moment before responding, “Sure, let’s plan during patrol.” He sighed, “I guess I better get home now.”

 

“Wait one second,” Ladybug commanded and then walked over to the nearby flowers. She scanned the selection for a moment before picking her favorites from the bunch. Carefully she arranged her bouquet as Chat watched her, curiously.

 

“Here,” she presented them to him. “For Peacock.”

 

He smiled, this time displaying his full goofy cat grin and gently took them from her hands.

 

“Phank Foo,” He said through a mouthful of flower stems. He leapt on her shoulders and nudged his nose against her cheek then took off into the city. Just a cat running through Paris with a bouquet of flowers. Ladybug smiled at the image before she too took off for home.

 

\---

 

Adrien landed softly in his room, shaking his now human hand. A bee had popped out of the flowers and stung his paw. He set the flowers down carefully on his coffee table.

 

“I thought you were just going out for a little investigation,” a voice called from a corner of his room

 

Adrien sigh, “Not everything goes according to plan.”

 

“I’ll say.” The black cat strolled into the setting sun shining through the large windows. “You come home smelling like that and all those shadows are gonna close in on you.”

 

“Aw so you do care, Plagg.” Adrien bent down to pick that cat up, holding him at arms length so his body dangled long. He was trying to get a smile out of his carefree friend. Plagg did not look happy.

 

“Oh shut up. You just chose a hell of a day to call all the bad luck in France to you.”

 

“I know, I know.” Plagg wiggled out of the boys grasp, landing evenly on all four paws. Adrien gave up and went to his closet, rummaging through years of past fashion trends until he found his prize. He emerged with a simple glass vase and headed to the sink to fill it.

 

“Why don’t you just run away for a bit? Lay low till your luck levels out at your normal terrible level.”

 

“He’d worry, Plagg.” Adrien walked back into the room and carefully arranged the flowers in the vase on his coffee table.

 

“Oh sure, because I give a damn about that man’s feelings.”

 

Adrien shot the cat a disapproving glance. “Maybe I should move the flowers to the dining room, by her portrait. Do you think she’d like that? Ladybug wanted me to give them to her.”

 

“Always changing the subject.”

 

Adrien continued to stare at the flowers. “It’s not that. It’s just there’s nothing I can do about it. You know maybe I’ll just get normal bad luck stuff. A stubbed toe. Dropping a glass of water in my lap. Maybe I’ll even oversleep and miss a big exam or something,” he said hopefully.

 

“Do you have any big exams coming up?”

 

“No,” Adrien dejectedly plopped himself onto his sofa and Plagg hopped into his lap.

 

“I’m sorry, Adrien. This should never have happened to you, you don’t deserve any of it. I told her not to make any more black cats.”

 

“Don’t say that Plagg. If she’d kept that promise I wouldn’t be here to get you Camembert.”

 

“Well, you do have access to some very high quality cheeses.”

 

“Oh, speaking of, I got you a gougère, today.” Adrien leaned to the side to retrieve his bag from the far end of the couch without disturbing the comfortable cat.

 

He carefully extracted the box and gave the puff to Plagg.

 

The cat set if down on Adrien’s knee, taking an unusual second before chowing down.

 

“Would you like a bite?” he asked.

 

“Nah, I got myself an éclair,” he said as he pulled out his own plunder.

 

The two sat in comfortable silence for a moment they both devoured their yummy goods. As the sweets dwindled, they settled in to watch the sun set.

 

“I guess we just wait then,” Plagg said.

 

Adrien hummed in agreement.

 

“I’m not helping you this time,” the cat added.

 

“I don’t expect you to.”

 

“I know you don’t,” Plagg said quietly.

 

Adrien stared steadily ahead of him at the vase of flowers and the silence stretch on as the sun sank lower below the uneven Paris skyline.

 

“Hey, Plagg?” He asked.

 

“Yes, Adrien?”

 

“I miss her.” He said the words so small, as though that would help them disappear.

 

“I know.” He nuzzled the boy’s chin, and Adrien tucked his knees up so he could bury his face in Plagg’s silky fur.

 

And the sun set.

 

And they waited.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy what is in store for our sun shine son?? Out of curiosity, how much suffering are you guys down for?
> 
> Finally, some Plagg! May be one day we will get goofy Plagg. I'm surprised no one commented on the camembert last chapter. Of course it wasn't for Adrien!
> 
> What did you guys pick up on this time? You know I had half of this written like the day after my last posting but then life happened.
> 
> By the way, a ladybug fell on my keyboard while I was working on this chapter. That's got to mean something, doesn't it?


	10. The Cat in the Box

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw for abuse

“I need you to take deep breaths, ok? Count with me. Five seconds in, five out. 1, 2, come on, 4, 5.” Ladybug’s voice echoed in his head through the blackness. The darkness was pressing down on his chest until it felt like his very heart was pushing its way between his ribs.

“Can you hear me, buddy?”

Adrien desperately pushed his body up, his slick hands slipping underneath him. He desperately clawed at the darkness as his pulse thundered out of control. Its machine gun staccato pounded his ears, and, even in the pitch black, he felt his vision closing in on him. He had to get to ladybug before it was too late. Rocks shattered as they fell soundlessly around him. He was buried. They were buried. He was curled up in a ball and he kicked his legs out, but only made it inches before whacking his big toe painfully against something. He struck out at the barrier in front of him. He had to get to her.

“Lay down, Adrien. Relax just close your eyes and breath, okay?”

Her voice echoed in her head, but she wasn’t right. Ladybug had never said those words to Adrien Agreste, had she?

“Come on kid, you hear me?”

He lay back down and closed his eyes, trying to focus on the voice and not the shadows overwhelming him.

“Plagg? I-,” he gasped, his breathing taking over his words.

“There we go, kid. Just focus on me, yeah? Breathe in… breathe out. Can you do that?”

After a few minutes Adrien calmed down enough to reach out at his enclosure, feeling the walls trapping him in the fetal position. He turned into a cat to gain extra room and curled up. A headache beat it’s way into his skull and he pressed his head against the ground in an attempt to squash it. His limbs shook and his teeth chattered and more than anything he felt like he was going to throw up. But nothing came except his halting, panted breaths.

Anger echoed in his head and he squeezed his eyes against it.

“Why don’t you ever think about the way I feel?” His father’s voice spat at him.

He heard the shatter of a glass vase dashed against the ground, and, as much as he tried to focus on Plagg’s voice, the memories continued to wash over him.

“Do you think she would have wanted this? You wandering around god-knows-where.”

Glass cut into his bare feet as he backed away. Plagg’s calming voice seemed miles away and suddenly glass dug into his back.

“I’m sick of this. It's dangerous out there. If you don’t want to keep yourself safe, than I will,” his father’s voice thundered at him.

He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t breathe. His adam’s apple crushed painfully beneath soft hands. He couldn’t breathe.

“Adrien!” Plagg’s voice cut through the haze.

“I know you’re scared and you feel like you can’t breathe, but your lungs are fine. I promise. You aren’t suffocating. Just take deep breathes for me okay. No one is hurting you. It’s just you and me here. Can you count with me?”

“Okay,” Adrien gasped.

“Okay. One, two, three…”

“One, two, three,” Adrien repeated and his hiccupping slowed as he counted his breaths. His father’s anger faded from his throbbing ears.

“You’re doing great, kid.”

As the rumble of his memories faded, the silence began to crush him and he tried to focus on Plagg and only Plagg.

\----

Marinette focused on her breathing as she plucked the needle carefully through the diaphanous fabric. She couldn’t afford to lose a single inch of the sections she had salvaged from Chloe’s villainy. Her decision to hand embroider some of her floral patterns had better pay off because her fingers were certainly suffering from the meticulous task. Her muscles were tight with the tension of her task, and her shoulders ached from the hunched position that she’d kept for who knows how long.

The buzz of her phone alarm jolted her from her focus. She quickly swiped the alarm off and, after a quick peek at her busy parents downstairs, transformed into her ladybug persona.

She summoned her broom and was soon off into the chilly night air. As she drifted over her city, her eyes scanned the horizon for a sleek feline form prancing across the rooftops. Sometimes she managed to surprise her partner, swooping down to lift him from his sure-footed purchase along the shingled Parisian buildings.

This night she was lucky.

 _There_ , she thought as she silently coasted up behind a small, determined black silhouette. She leaned over and brought two hands around a surprisingly plump rib cage. She snatched the cat up from the roof, laughing.

“Gotcha!”

There was a loud snarl and a hiss and thin tracks marked a line of fire along her arms. She hadn’t thought to magically protect herself here. She dropped the cat. It landed and bounced into an arched defensive position. It’s mouth wide and teeth sharp while it voiced its displeasure at her intrusion.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” she apologized to the uncomprehending creature. She reached out an entreating hand only to receive another angry swipe of paws. The cat took off in the opposite direction, desperate to get away from the rude witch grabbing at innocent cats.

Ladybug put pressure on her stinging cuts, looking around in cautious embarrassment. She hoped no one had seen that. Then she realized that of course no one saw, since she was 100 feet in the air.

Chat would get a laugh out of her faux pas for sure. She’d likely broken a zillion cat codes of etiquette that he’d be sure to rub in her face.

She continued her cruise to the Eiffel Tower and was disappointed when she landed. Her partner wasn’t here. Maybe he was running late.

\--

“That’s it, I’m using Cataclysm to get you out of there.”

“Plagg, no. You can’t. With all that bad luck, father would be sure to figure out that I’m Chat Noir. I can’t lose that. You know I can’t lose that.”

“You’d never stop being Chat Noir.” The muffled voice replied.

“If my father finds out, I might as well. He’d never let me leave the house again.”

“Then run away.”

“We’ve talked about this.”

“Then tell someone what he does to you.”

“I can’t leave him. He’d have no one.”

“He deserves no one.”

“Please, Plagg.”

His guardian let out an ancient sigh. Adrien strained his eyes in the darkness, trying to make out anything to calm his racing thoughts.

“Then I’ll get you out a normal way, okay?”

“What do you mean?”

“Hang on.”

Adrien called out after his friend. Fighting off the panic that was seizing him when he realized he was alone again. Alone in the dark.

He didn’t realize he was holding his breath until he heard the heavy thud of human feet. The breath just wouldn’t come out.

“It’s okay, kid. It’s me,” Plagg said.

“Oh thank god,” Adrien gasped. Plagg must’ve taken human form. Unusual for him. Based off where he was in the room, he also must’ve come in through the window, which Adrien should’ve noticed sooner.

“Sorry. I got some bolt cutters. Can I get that open for you?”

Adrien’s mind raced for an excuse he could use to his father for how he got out. None came to mind, but the walls were closing in on him in here and he let that rational thought go. “Yes,” he squeaked.

He heard the rattle of metal as Plagg lined up the tool. There was a grunt of exertion and the clatter of something heavy falling to the ground. Adrien pushed up against the lid of his confinement only to be thwarted with a jerked stop.

“I’m so sorry, Adrien.”

“What happened?”

“The bolt cutters fell apart. They were brand new.”

Adrien let that sink in. He wasn’t ready to admit what it meant, though. “Go find something else.”

\--

Marinette leaned her chin against her palm as she struggled to keep her eyes open for her Monday morning first period. Once again, there was no blonde head to distract her attention from the board, but she was distracted all the same. Chat Noir hadn’t shown up last night. She realized it wasn’t time to worry yet. Sometimes either one of them couldn’t make it to patrol. She’d missed out plenty of times because she’d had too much homework or made last minute plans with a friend. It didn’t mean that some bad luck had befallen him. She’d worry later.

She tried not to worry about Adrien, either. His attendance record wasn’t looking great lately. He was a busy kid though, maybe he just needed a day off. She wouldn’t blame him for that after that one day she’d followed him around.

She was not doing a great job of not worrying when Alya pushed her shoulder hard enough to knock her chin off her palm. Marinette just barely saved her face from slamming into the desk.

“Girl, what is up with you?” Alya asked. “You are just too stress out with this competition. Someone needs a break.”

“Ugh, Alya, do you think I can afford to take a break? Thanks to a certain class menace I’ve got three times the work to do with half the amount of fabric.”

“Listen, sometimes you need to take a step back so you can approach a project with new vigor. It helps me all the time with the ladyblog. Why don’t we go see a movie today?”

Marinette counted out the days, hours, and minutes until her due date.

“Okay, you definitely need a break.” Alya decided. “No ifs, ands, or buts.”

\--

Plagg stared at the heavy metal trunk. Its sleek silver look fit in perfectly in this sterile office. The minimalist style of a monster.

He hefted a mallet in his human hand. He really wasn’t use to this form and didn’t have much desire to stay in it for so long. He lined the tool up against the padlock that was trapping his companion in a nightmare. His breathing deepened. Maybe, if he focused hard enough, it would work this time. With a crack, he brought the mallet against the lock and the wooden handle splintered in his grasp. The heavy metal head rocketed towards his foot, crushing his toes. He hopped about silently, hoping Adrien wouldn’t notice his pain. Of course the kid’s ear would pick it up but they could both pretend Plagg wasn’t being slowly beaten up by his plethora of tools.

“No luck?” Adrien asked, dejectedly.

“Almost. I think we’re getting closer.” Plagg examined the rotten wooden handle of the brand new mallet he had just lifted from a store. He glared accusingly at the pristine lock, still firmly imprisoning the kid.

“Plagg. It’s not going to work. Between the two of us, there's too much bad luck. At this point, I don’t even thing cataclysm will work. My bad luck will just draw all of it to me and the lock won’t break and father will show up and maybe the morning news crew and my whole class or something.”

He’d been at this all day. The kid had been trapped in their for ages. All his friends were likely finishing up school, wondering where their classmate was. He hadn’t even found Adrien until late Sunday night and he wasn’t sure how long he’d been in there beforehand. He doubted Adrien had a great grasp of time right now, either. He cursed himself for leaving his side. Adrien had convinced him to go on some useless errand to get him out of his room before his father came home. They both knew it was an effort to make Plagg leave, and Plagg knew that he wouldn’t have been able to stop himself from interfering, even if that wasn’t what Adrien wanted.

He should’ve stayed and interfered. He just didn’t understand people these days. Maybe it just Adrien he didn’t understand.

“No,” Plagg said firmly. He refused to be this useless. “We’ll figure something out.”

\--

Marinette settled into the cushy theater seat. Alya could not stop talking about the rave reviews she’d read for this film, and Marinette loved listening to her friend’s research. She reached for their shared bucket of butter-drenched popcorn.

The two girls chatted amicably as the projector ticked to life behind them. Marinette licked her salty fingers and the screen came to life. The two girls joined the hushed quiet, as the lights dimmed to black.

\---

Adrien stared into the dark.

“Okay, kid. This time, I’ve got it for sure.” Plagg punctuated his statement with a click and a dull roar, and Adrien’s sensitive ears perked up.

“Plagg? Plagg? Is that a blow torch?” Adrien asked suspiciously.

“Shh Shh,” Plagg hushed.

“Plagg, no!”

\--

It was another late night when Marinette finally settled into her bed. Her fingers smarted with a sting of tiny needle pricks but she could still taste the butter on her lips and her mind raced with a plot of the movie. The reviews had been right. It was an excellent film.

Her designs flowed in her head with thoughts of the two protagonists racing through busy streets to meet each other. The world a blur of vibrant colors as they locked eyes. They ran and ran and sleep took her before the lovers could meet.

\--

Adrien stared into the dark. Listening to the comforting purr of his friend curled up on the lid of his cage. He tried to move to a better position, his slippery back sliding over the rough floor of the trunk.

“Hey, Adrien?”

“Yeah, Plagg?”

“How have we ever accomplished anything when we're around each other?”

Adrien thought about it a moment. “I guess we’ve never really accomplished anything.”

“Oh, right.” Plagg replied. Preening at his burned off eyebrows.

\--

Marinette woke refreshed. Her eyelids didn’t drag open and her blankets didn’t weigh her down. She popped right out of bed and raced through her morning routine. She rushed to the kitchen and grabbed a croissant and a to-go cup. With a kiss for her mother and a splash of hot coffee across her hand, she was off to school.

She bounded across the cobble stone streets, joining Alya as she rounded the final corner before her high school steps.

“Someone looks happy.”

“Oh, Alya, I’ve got so many great idea,” Marinette gushed. She took off on her latest fashion tangent, and the two bounded up the steps. Alya eagerly listened while they retrieved their books from their bags and settled in at their desk.

“See, Marinette?” Alya taunted. “Renewed vigor! Want to go to Shakespeare and Company this afternoon?”

“I can’t,” Marinette sighed. “I promised my parents I’d help in the bakery.”

\--

Plagg continued to stare angrily at the chest. Adrien had been in there for at least two days at this point. A rotten, sour odor emanated from the prison, and, for the sake of the boy’s modesty, he tried not to smell too closely.

“I’m calling Ladybug.”

“Plagg, no,” Adrien protested hoarsely. “Isn’t she in school now, anyway? You wouldn’t be able to find her.”

“I’ll get Tikki.”

“Please, Plagg. Please don’t leave me.”

“I can’t get you out.”

“I know. Please, just stay.”

\--  
Marinette laughed as her mother wiped flour from her nose.

“My daughter’s turned into a ghost!” Sabine admonished with feigned seriousness.

“Sorry, Mama,” Marinette replied, wiping happy tears from her eyes and shaking flour from her head. She’d poured the sugar-almond flour too quickly through the sifter and been rewarded with a puff of powder raining down on her.

“Well, now you’re really looking like a baker’s daughter. Even if you don’t have the technique down quite yet.” Sabine smiled. “Making macaroons is a delicate process, Marinette. No need to be in such a hurry. Here.” Sabine took the sifter from her, gently guiding her daughter through the process.

Marinette may have seen her future in fashion, but she could always enjoy an afternoon baking with her Maman.

“What on earth is going on in here?”

Marinette turned to her dad at the door.

“Uh, I can explain, Papa.” she said.

“Was there a blizzard in here, Marinette?”

“Perhaps.”

“You know, I think I heard of a cold front coming in,” Her father said with a roar, picking her up in a bear hug. They twirled her around, and she laughed as a snow of flour flittered down from her hair and coated the kitchen floor. The twinkle of her laughter blended with her parents.

\--

Adrien perked up at the distant sound. Even muffled through his confinement, the noise made his heart hammer.

“Plagg,” he warned but he could already here the metal clattering as tools were stashed away. Adrien returned to his human form, his lanky joints pressed against the confines of the shrinking space.

The door opened much quicker than either of them expected, and Adrien heard the patter of feline feet just in time. Somewhere in his mind, he considered that Plagg would be happy to be out of his human form. Mostly though, his thoughts were consumed by fear as his father’s cold voice seeped across the room.

“What’s this?”

Adrien’s throat caught as his voice warred over what to say.

“A stray cat,” he finally croaked in to the dark. “I made friends with him. Just let him go okay?”

“Adrien,” the disembodied voice replied with disgust. “You know these animals carry all sorts of diseases.”

He heard his fathers heavy steps advance to the office window and the protesting creak of rarely used hinges as it swung open.

“Really, you never use your head, do you?”

Hissing filled with room, building and building until the viscous sound permeated the entire room. His ears carefully followed his father’s trek across the room. The racketing clamor ended abruptly with a yelp. In a moment, Adrien’s heightened senses pieced together the scene. His father had tossed Plagg out the window.

The walls closed in quickly around him after that. His calm was thrown out the window. His breathing hiked. His knees crushed into the tiny space. His eyes fluttered in the dark. His slick back rubbed across the dimpled metal floor. He laid his trembling hands against the warm metal above him, feeling the condensation of his panting breath.

Suddenly, he was pounding against the lid. He was screaming. He was crying. He was begging. He didn’t think he could ever stop. He pounded bruises into his own fists and his howls tore at his vocal cords. His eyes blistered and his chapped lips smarted at this salty tears.

He didn’t think he could ever stop until he did. He fists fell uselessly and his broken wails quieted. His hands reached to pull at his hair as he curled up around his hiccuping sobs. Until they stopped as well. His eyes stared, open or closed he wasn’t sure. He was frozen.

“I’m disappointed, Adrien.” His father’s voiced dripped with vitriol. “You really haven’t learned your lesson, have you?” Footsteps. The muffled sigh of an expensive leather chair accepting its owners weight. The ruffle of papers. The scratch of a pen. The clack of a keyboard. The scratch of a pen. The scratch of a pen. The scratch of a pen.

The scratch of a pen.

The scratch of a pen.

The scratch of a pen.

His father worked for hours and Adrien was frozen. His limbs locked in place. Warm wet seeped into his clothes. He felt the press of his own bird-boned weight. The curve of his skull, the point of his shoulders, the narrow stripes of his splayed ribs, the bend of his hip, the hook of his knee, the spike of his ankle. He pressed into the metal. Into the earth. Into the ground.

“You’re in there because you deserve to be in there. And you’ll stay in there until you can learn to behave.”

His father left the room.

\--

Nino stood before the imposing gate of the Agreste manor and gulped down his nervousness. He rang the bell. He was greeted by an unpleasant security camera and the exhasperated sigh of an overworked secretary.

“You again?”

“Please, Madamoiselle Sancoeur. I know he’s sick but I just want to visit. Trust me, I never get sick, I’ll be fine.”

“Adrien is highly contagious, and it wouldn’t help his recovery to have you riling him up,” came the curt reply.

“He’s my bro, though. Why isn’t he answering his phone?”

“Adrien needs his rest. Good day.” The security camera ducked back into the wall and Nino’s protests were met with silence. He turn to the mailbox sticking his fingernails under its seamless edge to pry it open and deposit a CD.

“I made him a playlist to help. Can you make sure he gets it?” Nino asked no one and received no reply.

\--

Ladybug’s feet dangled from the cold steel beam. She stared forlornly out at her twinkling city. The breathtaking sight was quickly losing its vibrancy as the minutes ticked by and Chat Noir didn’t show. It was Tuesday night and she hadn’t seen him since the debacle in the catacombs on Saturday afternoon. She was so distracted during the day that it was easy to forget, but sitting up here, alone in the biting wind, all she could think about was the weight of her superheroine task. They had so much work to do. They needed to keep exploring the Parisian underground. She considered going alone but the thought of the tunnels collapsing on her alone stayed her action.

Maybe she couldn’t visit the catacombs alone, but she couldn’t stay here either. She hopped to her feet, grabbed her broom, and leapt from the top of the Eiffel tower. She enjoyed the free fall for a moment. The roar of wind drowned out her worried thoughts and pulled her hair up above her. She felt the familiar warmth of her lifting magic and brought the broom down to straddle. Her free fall ended in a swoop and she was brought level to coast over the neighborhood.

She glimpsed a slinking black shadow across the low skyline and quietly drifted up behind it. She leaned to the side reaching her hands out but hesitated as her past failure raced to mind. The cat abruptly stopped and her magic broom kept pace. It turned its bright green eyes on her and she sighed. Another failure. It wasn’t Chat.

“Sorry,” she mumbled to the cat.

“That’s alright,” the cat replied.

\--

Adrien was dreaming. At least he thought he was. It was really more of a feeling. The feeling of a cold tile floor. The feeling of his head crooked at an awkward angle against a stair. The feeling of warm wetness slicking his hair down at the base of his neck and plastering his shirt to his shaking torso.

It was mostly the feeling of cold until it was the feeling of warmth. Warm hands pressing on his stomach. Warm hands cradling his head. A warm heart hugging him closely.

And then he could see. He saw his small feet and his small hands. He saw a deep maroon. He saw long blonde hair draping a curtain across his vision. He saw bright green eyes reflecting his own.

And he could hear. He heard her crying. He heard his gasping breaths until he couldn’t hear anymore.

And all he could do was think. He thought he never wanted any of this.

And then he gasped and he was back in the trunk in the dark. The metal had warmed to an unbearable level around him but he still felt cold. And even though all he saw was black, he thought he saw that black twisting and bending and it made him feel sick.

\---

Ladybug yelped, flailing to right herself on her broom in a way all too reminiscent of her first encounter with Chat Noir.

“Who are YOU?” She demanded. As she touched down on the roof.

“The name’s Plagg,” The cat replied. He sat down and stuck out a paw, which she hesitantly took.

“Pleasure,” He purred.

“I thought Chat Noir was the only black cat in Paris.” She blurted out.

“You must be Ladybug, then,” He continued, eyeing her red and black spotted suit. “A little on the nose isn’t it? Although my Chat’s not exactly subtle either.”

Ladybug stared.

“Yes,” Plagg sighed. “Your Chat Noir is the only black cat in Paris and, in fact, he's the only black cat in the world right now.”

“So then who are you?”

“I guess that I am to black cats what Tikki is to you.”

“Like, the god of black cats?”

“Sure,” Plagg replied, distracted. “The first black cat. It’s all a very sad story of the day Tikki and I meet thousands of years ago, but I don’t have time for that. I don’t have time for any of this really. Do you know where Tikki is?”

“Um, no I haven’t seen her for a while. I’m not sure she’s in Paris right now.” Marinette struggled to keep up. “Do you know where Chat Noir is right now, then? Is he okay?”

“No. He is very much not okay.” Plagg sniffed. “He is as not okay as anyone can be and I can’t seem to do anything about it.”

“Well, can I help?” Ladybug asked.

The cat scrutinized her carefully. “How do you feel about secret identities?”

Ladybug tugged at the corners of her mask. “With all that’s going on now- stronger than ever. But if Chat Noir needs me, I’ll do anything.”

“He’d kill me,” Plagg sighed.

“Is he-is he physically in danger right now?” She asked.

“Probably,” he replied.

“Probably?!?” She repeated, dumbly. “What does that mean? Is it Hawkmoth? I mean, he’s a kid, what sort of danger could he be in? Is he being mugged? Was he kidnapped?”

“You’re just a child, too. Aren’t you?” Plagg asked.

“I’m a superhero,” She said with all the bravery she could muster.

“A child.” Plagg confirmed. “But you want to help him, huh? Do you love him?”

“Wha- What? No! Chat Noir is just my partner,” She blubbered. “I mean he’s amazing. He cares about all of the akuma victims and he’s always there for me and it’s like he’s never thinking about himself. He’s amazing. But he’s just my partner.

“He really loves you, you know?” Plagg looked away. “And I can see why. You remind me of Tikki.”

Suddenly, the now familiar screams erupted across Paris. For the first time in a while, Ladybug was nervous for a fight.

“Sounds like an akuma. Chat Noir isn’t coming, is he?”

Plagg looked conflicted. “No. He’s not.”

Ladybug stared out to the growing cloud of smoke and felt the dread building inside her. “Please, I know Chat needs help but I can’t leave this. Can you help me? I don’t think I can fight alone. We can go rescue him after.”

The cat grimaced, almost in physical pain. “You really are just a kid, too, aren’t you? I left the superhero business centuries ago.”

Ladybug flashed her best puppy dog eyes.

“Fine. He’d be upset if I didn’t help anyhow,” he relented.

She grabbed her broom and Ladybug set off to save the day with the god of black cats.

\--

“Plagg?” Adrien called weakly. He thought he heard screaming, but it was hard to tell over the buzzing thunder that had consumed his ears.

“Father?” He was desperate and his voice was nearly gone. There was no answer. His fingers and toes were cold and he pressed his hands against his warm neck. The floor was slowly rocking and spinning beneath him. The thunder deepened until he could feel it in his chest. His panicked heartbeat echoed in the cavern of his chest as the rumble rolled through him and the lightning danced across his closed eyes.

“Plagg?” He called again, but he couldn’t hear his voice this time. He wasn’t sure what he wanted. At this point, he knew. He knew that he was in here because he deserved it, and his father would let him out when he deserved it.

\--

Plagg panted as Ladybug cupped the cleansed akuma in her palms. He was too old for this hero business. The stupid akuma had been fast and they’d spent hours chasing it and Plagg had spent hours away from his stupid charge. Hours he couldn’t afford.

Ladybug smiled as she released the white moth to flutter up into the lightening dawn sky. She turned to Plagg with tired eyes.

“Shall we go rescue our damsel in distress?” She tried for perky despite the early hour.

Suddenly, the cat’s ears pricked up and he stared at a distant point of Paris. His body was all stillness.

“Plagg?”

“I have to go,” he took off. “He needs me.”

Ladybug grabbed her broom, but, as she hopped on it, she lost sight of the cat. Her eyes scanned the deep morning blue horizon but nothing stood out.

“Damn those cats,” she muttered. “They’ll be the death of me.”

\---

It had taken too long to get back to the mansion. Plagg knew this as he bounded up to the window he had been so unceremoniously tossed out of. He prayed but he supposed he was the god of his kitten. So who does a god pray to?

Plagg reached out a briefly human hand to jimmy the window open and landed lightly on feline feet.

“Adrien?” He padded softly across the room until he saw the dark stain in the dawning light. The small trickle of blood from the corner of the trunk blossomed into a small rose of violent red across the white carpet.

“Adrien!” He yelled. He yelled over and over to no response. Plagg paced and shouted until he gave up and bolted out the office door. He galloped in a panic down the grand staircase and through the yawning foyer. He dashed under the dining table and through doors and hallways until he found the monster in a small breakfast room.

The monster gazed coldly at his expensive view of the quiet Paris morning while calmly sipping coffee from a white wedgewood china cup. Plagg caught the monster's glare with a hiss. He swiped at his ankle, relishing at the blood bubbling in the shallow lacerations he produced. Plagg continued to hiss, his fur raising high above his hackles as he barred his teeth and backed away. The monster reached out his bandaged hand, hoping to scruff the stray again, but Plagg danced out of his grasp. He dipped and dodged and led the monster back to his prey.

And Gabriel was angry. He cursed the cat as he chased it up the stairs and he cursed his own dignity. His face screwed up tighter and tighter in anger and his brow drew lower and lower until he could hardly see and when pushed open his office door he was ready to explode.

But the red rose exploded his anger from him and his face fell slack and blank at the sight.

“Adrien?” He asked softly. His knees buckled to the wet carpet as he laid his hand on the cool metal trunk.

“Adrien?” He asked again, but only received a hiss from the damn forgotten cat. He fumbled at his pocket for his keys and the lock fell to the red carpet. He looked passed the foul odor and the vomit streaked across the small chin, searching for those green eyes. But his son’s eyes were squeezed tightly in pain. He reached, gently, to push the sweat soaked hair from the child’s fevered forehead, and the boy instinctively moved his head to press his febrile cheek against the parental hand. And those green eyes opened with the desperate warmth that his father had always loved.

“Adrien,” Gabriel’s eyes blurred. He reached in to slide his hand under his son’s back, but he quickly pulled away. He stared, uncomprehending, at the blood on his hands. A whimper drew him back and he again slipped his arms inside and lifted the featherweight boy to his chest. The back of the child's shirt clung wetly to his forearms. Adrien's golden haired head flopped weakly against his father’s chest. His burning head pounded powerfully, but, for the first time in so long, he was warm where he’d been cold. His name was warm from the lips of his father who stared down at him with warm eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my darlings. You did say you wanted him to suffer... well most of you. 
> 
> Just as an FYI, Gabriel is an ass (pardon my French!) and I fully believe that. At least, in this story. And I'm not someone who thinks abuse is okay because the parent thinks they love the child. But neither Gabe nor Adrien are really in a place here to be reliable narrators for my beliefs. But, hey, I'm steering this story ship, so hang on tight.
> 
> Anyhoo, I'm glad I finished this chapter. I cut it off earlier than I expected because I had a lot more to write than I had realized. And I wrote the first bit right after I finished the last chapter. I just have to have something else I'm supposed to be doing to motivate me to write (like finishing my final secondary app for vet school).
> 
> I went back through and fixed a lot of little editing mistakes on my writing in past chapters. Sometimes I sounded like English was my second language, which is embarrassing only because I'm a dumb American and English is literally my only language. I just don't like to proofread. And, in this story, I'm being a little loose with sentence structure. Like starting sentences with conjunctions or prepositions.
> 
> What do you all think of ML season 2, if you're watching it? I'm loving it. And I called a fear of tight spaces for Adrien....
> 
> Please give me your feedback! Give me your theories for my story! Give me your love and your hate! (But be gentle).


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